More grim New Year signs for Tories as poll finds Labour in a 21-point lead with Rishi Sunak banking on his big speech to turn the tide
There was more New Year gloom for the Tories today as a poll showed them 21 points behind Labour.
Keir Starmer‘s party has stretched its advantage by four points over the festive fortnight, according to the latest Techne UK tracker.
Labour’s support had nudged up one to 46 per cent, while the Conservatives were down three on 25 per cent.
In a worrying sign for Rishi Sunak, fieldwork for the survey took place partly after his big speech on Wednesday – although it will likely have been too soon to feed through into the results.
The PM is hoping his ‘five promises’ for voters to judge him on – including growing the economy, cutting NHS waiting lists and tackling the Channel migrant crisis – can start to turn the tide.
Keir Starmer’s party has stretched their advantage by four points over the festive fortnight, according to the latest Techne UK tracker
Trying to get on the front foot in 2023 amid a crippling wave of strikes, Mr Sunak used his speech to acknowledge the massive pressures facing hospitals and said he was taking ‘urgent action’ to protect services.
He also slammed ‘misinformation’ from unions over strikes, and said the government will shortly lay out its next move.
The PM said he hoped he was already starting to earn people’s ‘trust’ after replacing Liz Truss in October.
But despite hoping for a fresh start in the New Year, the Tory infighting that dominated 2022 reared its head again as Mr Sunak was slammed for dumping a series of Boris Johnson’s flagship policies.
Keir Starmer gave his own rival speech yesterday, attempting to banish the Corbyn era and woo back Brexit voters as he pledged that Labour will no longer get out the ‘big government cheque book’ to solve problems.
Sir Keir heaped praise on the private sector for ‘creating wealth’. ‘Everything that we say and do will be fully costed,’ he said.
In a nod to fears that he has not ‘sealed the deal’ with voters despite huge poll leads, Sir Keir insisted he will not ‘rest on our laurels’.
And the Labour leader, who was a staunch Remainer, also boldly sought to hijack the Leave campaign’s slogan from the EU referendum – pledging a ‘Take Back Control Act’ to devolve power away from Westminster.
Other New Year polls have given similarly miserable snapshots of the Tories’ political standing
Despite Labour holding huge poll leads, there are some signs that support is ‘soft’ and the public is still unconvinced by the leader. One this week showed Rishi Sunak has leapfrogged Sir Keir as the preferred option for PM
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Labour had an eye-watering 20-point lead overall in Redfield & Wilton research this week.
However, in a glimmer of hope for Mr Sunak the survey found he had leapfrogged Sir Keir as the public’s preferred PM.
The Tory leader was the choice of 38 per cent, compared to 36 per cent for Sir Keir – in an apparent sign that he is stabilising the government following Ms Truss’s disastrous premiership.
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