Tories take 7-point poll lead
GROWING working- class support has given the Conservatives their biggest poll lead in a year.
In a big boost for Theresa May, the Tories now have a seven-point lead over Labour, it emerged last night.
It is the party’s biggest advantage since last June’s general election, when Mrs May lost her Commons majority, and the fifth poll in a row to give the Tories a lead of more than four points.
The YouGov poll for The Times, which also shows Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s personal popularity plummeting, comes despite a week of public infighting between Cabinet ministers over Brexit.
It puts the Tories on 44 per cent, up two points in a week, while Labour is down two points on 37 per cent and the Lib Dems down one on eight. Ukip are stuck on three per cent and the Greens are up one point to three per cent.
Much of the Tory increase is attributed to working-class voters – 48 per cent of them now back the Conservatives, up from 35 per cent in January. Only 37 per cent would still vote Labour – a huge fall from 46 per cent in January.
Asked who would make the best PM, 37 per cent backed Mrs May and 24 per cent Mr Corbyn, a fall of seven points since January for the diehard left-winger and his lowest score since May 2017.
The proportion of people who think Britain should stay in the EU has fallen to 44 per cent, but 64 per cent say the Government is handling the negotiations badly – the highest level this year.
Before the Government’s current Brexit woes, Mr Corbyn and Labour suffered a string of political setbacks.
He came under fire for his repeated refusal to blame Moscow for the Salisbury nerve-agent attack on former Soviet spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Labour was then engulfed by antiSemitism allegations and Mr Corbyn had to apologise for supporting the artist behind an anti-Semitic mural.
Then after his boast that Labour was ‘going to do very well’ in local elections the party failed to gain a single town hall in London and conceded a swing in the overall vote share to the Conservatives.