Politics

Conservatives open up largest lead since 2017 election

The Conservatives have opened up their biggest lead over Labour since the 2017 election, according to the latest polls.

Boris Johnson’s party is expected to take 47 per cent of the vote in the December election after the Brexit Party pulled out of contesting their seats.

Three-quarters of Leave voters now intend to vote Tory, an increase of six per cent from last week.

Remainer shift

Labour remain at 28 per cent whilst the Liberal Democrats have dropped 2 points to 12 per cent.

That is largely thanks to a Remainer shift away from Jo Swinson’s party and towards Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour has increased their vote share among Remainers from 10 points since the election was called, from 36 per cent to 46 per cent.

However, despite the Liberal Democrats vote share declining since September, they still hold a quarter of Remainer’s votes.

The impact of the ITV debate

Following last week’s first TV debate, public satisfaction with Boris Johnson has dropped 3 points to 27 per cent, now in line with Jeremy Corbyn, who remains static at 27 per cent.

Despite the decline in public satisfcation, 35 per cent of voters still believe that Johnson would make the best prime minister.

Corbyn has dropped 1 point since last week, with only 19 per cent thinking he would be the best fit.

With just under three weeks left until the election, some of the public still appear unimpressed with both candidates, with 31 per cent claiming that neither candidate would make the best prime minister.

The Brexit Party truce

Jack Tadman, Research Manager at Opinium comments: “The Brexit Party standing down in all Tory held seats has given the Conservatives an even larger vote share and increased their lead over the Labour Party. 

“However, this hasn’t appeared to impact Labour’s performance, with vote share steady at 28 per cent.

“Furthermore, there are a substantial number of undecided voters which could narrow the current Conservative lead.

“The debate that was set to kick off the election seems to have failed to ignite the public’s interest, with perceptions of the leaders getting worse on the whole and Johnson suffering in particular on perceptions of being principled and trustworthy.”

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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