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Labor has leapt ahead of the Conservatives in an opinion poll for the first time since Boris Johnson became prime minister.
The latest Opinium poll found that 42 percent intended to vote for Sir Keir Starmer’s party compared to 39 percent of the Conservatives.
The fortunes of the Conservatives, who held a 26-point lead over rivals when the coronavirus crisis began in March, continue to decline. The two sides were head-to-head in last month’s poll.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have shown no signs of gaining support since they chose Sir Ed Davey as their new leader. They are at 5 percent, one point less.
The poll also suggests that Sir Keir has improved the opinion of the Labor Party: 40 percent of voters believe that the Labor Party is ready to form the next government and 55 percent believe that Sir Keir is ready to be prime minister.
Sir Keir leads Boris Johnson as “best prime minister” at 36% versus 32%.
Opinium said the government’s handling of the pandemic was contributing to the conservatives’ drop in polls, with 50 percent disapproving of the overall response to the crisis and 57 percent disapproving of handling the evidence .
And while most people support the measures introduced to combat the virus, 60 percent believe that more restrictions will be needed to stop a second wave. The vast majority of people (86 percent) say they strictly or generally follow the rules.
The last time the Labor Party led the polls was in July 2019, when Jeremy Corbyn was leader and Theresa May’s time in office was coming to an end.
Corbyn supporters reacted to the new poll by suggesting that “any other leader would be 20 points ahead,” a reference to a comment made by Tony Blair about the former Labor leader in 2017.
