MAY’S BREXIT POLL BOOST
Thank goodness! Her EU deal gives Tories the lead over Labour
THERESA May is enjoying a popularity surge among voters after her Brexit negotiations breakthrough, a poll revealed yesterday.
In a major recovery after months of political turmoil, the Prime Minister has more than doubled her lead over Jeremy Corbyn as the best choice to lead the country.
The Tories have also regained their opinion poll lead over Labour among voters for the first time since the General Election.
Speculation was growing last night that Mrs May will use her strengthened position to carry out a wide-ranging reshuffle of her Cabinet early in the New Year.
Former Tory Cabinet minister Lord Hague urged her to shake up her frontbench team.
He said her diplomatic achievement in agreeing the first stage of the Brexit negotiations “merits a reappraisal of her performance in office and a pause for breath on the part of her
critics”. Writing in a newspaper article, the peer added: “A shuffle is always tricky when every vote is needed, but it is essential to bring on the extensive future talent of the Tory party.”
Yesterday’s YouGov poll gave Conservatives a 42 per cent share of support, up two points compared with last week while Labour was unchanged on 41 per cent.
It also showed that the PM’s personal popularity lead over Mr Corbyn had increased from four to nine points over the last week.
Asked which leader would make the best Prime Minister, 37 per cent of voters quizzed went for Mrs May. The figure was up from 34 per cent last week while Mr Corbyn’s support sank to 28 per cent from 30 per cent.
In a separate question about who voters would trust to negotiate Brexit, 32 per cent went for the Prime Minister but only 16 per cent backed the Labour leader.
The findings in the YouGov poll of 1,680 voters on Sunday suggest Mrs May’s success in breaking the deadlock in the EU exit negotiations last week has triggered a significant shift of public support in her favour.
Forced
Yet just over a quarter of voters thought the Government was doing a good job on Brexit and 57 per cent thought it was doing a bad job.
Asked about the progress of the negotiations so far, half thought the EU had the upper hand and had forced the UK to accept its demands.
Twenty six per cent thought there had been “give and take” and just four per cent thought Britain had the upper hand. Only a third of voters thought the country would leave the EU in March 2019, as Mrs May promised.
Fourteen per cent thought Brexit would happen in 2020, 17 per cent thought it would happen after 2020 and 10 per cent thought the UK would not leave the EU at all.
One senior Tory said last night: “Making progress on getting Brexit done will have a big impact on how voters view the Government.
“No one is going to get over-excited by a single poll, but there does seem to be a feeling that we are getting our momentum back.” The YouGov poll also showed support for the Lib Dems under new leader Sir Vince Cable was stalled at seven per cent, unchanged from last week. Backing for other parties including Ukip and the Scottish and Welsh nationalists was down one point to 10 per cent over the week.
A separate survey released last night from polling firm ICM put the Conservatives on 42 per cent and Labour on 40 per cent. Most Tory MPs believe Mrs May’s efforts in Brussels have done enough to quell the speculation about her leadership.
However, Lord Hague dismissed suggestions floated by some of Mrs May’s allies that he could join her Cabinet to provide extra experience.
The former Tory leader said: “I have read that I should return to government as an old hand, but I have mentally moved on and will most definitely not be doing so.
“It is a great strength that excellent new MPs were elected in the last three elections – advancing five or six of them into the public gaze would be a service to party and country.”