Rebels are already more popular than the Lib Dems

THE breakaway movement launched yesterday by rebel Labour MPs immediately became Britain’s third most popular political group.

If they contested the next general election as a national party they would win 8 per cent of votes, damaging Jeremy Corbyn’s hopes of entering No 10.

The biggest losers are the Lib Dems, whose support slumps from 10 to 6 per cent.

These are among the findings of the first full-scale opinion survey conducted after the seven MPs formed the new Independent Group yesterday.

Alarmingly for Mr Corbyn, the Survation poll says nearly one in three Labour voters prefer the new group to the official Corbyn-led Labour Party.

A total of 56 per cent of members of the public say the rebel MPs were right to abandon the Labour Party; just 0 per cent said they should have stayed.

There is also clear public support for their reasons for leaving. More than one in two agree Mr Corbyn is a ‘threat to UK security’ and that Labour has been ‘hijacked by the hard Left’.

The poll suggests that if the Independent Group became a national party, it would cut support for Labour to 34 per cent, down two percentage points, with the Conservatives on 39, five points ahead, a slight increase in its lead over Labour.

Given a straight choice between Mr Corbyn’s Labour Party and the breakaway movement, most voters choose the latter. Among Labour supporters, 45 per cent back Mr Corbyn with 31 per cent behind the rebels.

The best-known Labour rebel, Chuka Umunna, is the clear public choice to lead the new group. Moreover, ominously for Mr Corbyn, Mr Umunna is seen as ‘best Labour PM’ by 8 per cent, three points ahead of Mr Corbyn himself on 5. Among Labour voters, 48 per cent back ‘PM Corbyn’ with 3 per cent in favour of ‘PM Umunna’.

Mr Corbyn gets most blame for the split: A total of 43 per cent of voters see him as the main cause;

3 per cent put it down to anti-Semitism in Labour, and 17 per cent say Brexit is the main factor.

A total of 8 per cent say the splinter group makes it more likely that the Tories will win the next election; 5 per cent say it makes it less likely.

But 57 per cent of voters disapprove of the rebels’ refusal to resign their seats and stand in byelections, against per cent who are content for them to carry on as MPs.

Survation interviewed 1,0 3 adults online yesterday afternoon.