New polls suggest Labour closing gap on Tories
A CLUTCH of new general election polls have shown the Conservative lead over Labour shrinking as the June 8 vote approaches, including one that put Theresa May’s party just six points clear.
The ORB poll for the Sunday Telegraph had Tories down two points in the past week on 44%, six points ahead of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour on 38% (up four points), with Lib Dems on 7% (unchanged) and Ukip on 5% (down two).
The 38% score equals Labour’s best rating since Mr Corbyn became leader and would see him comfortably out-poll Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown’s election results if repeated on June 8.
In the Sunday Times, a YouGov poll put Tories seven points ahead on 43% (unchanged since a similar poll on Friday), with Labour down two points on 36%, Lib Dems down a point on 9% and Ukip unchanged on 4%.
An Opinium poll for The Observer found the Tory advantage had fallen from 13 to 10 points over the past week, with Theresa May’s party on 45% (down one point), Labour on 35% (up two), Lib Dems on 7% (down one) and Ukip on 5% (unchanged).
And a ComRes survey for the Sunday Mirror and Independent showed the gap between the parties narrowing from 18 to 12 points over the past fortnight, with Tories on 46% (down two), Labour on 34% (up four), Lib Dems on 8% (down two) and Ukip on 5% (unchanged).
Although the results are less dramatic than Friday’s YouGov survey, which found the Conservative advantage squeezed to just five points, they tally with the trend in a number of polls which have shown Labour gaining on the Tories after having begun the election race as much as 25 points adrift.
All the surveys were conducted after the suicide bomb in Manchester. The ComRes poll found Mrs May was rated best leader to keep Britain safe from terrorism, by a margin of 42% to 16%.