Boris defies the wobble and stays streets ahead of Corbyn
BORIS JOHNSON’S uncertain start to the Election campaign has not harmed his party’s poll ratings, with the Conservatives maintaining their 12-point lead from last week.
The party’s early ‘wobble’ – with gaffes such as Jacob Rees-Mogg suggesting that victims of the Grenfell Tower inferno should have ignored fire brigade advice to stay in the building – has not hit their support.
Their headline figure is 41 per cent, with Labour on 29 per cent – both up one percentage point from last week – with the Liberal Democrats up two points on 16 per cent.
Support for the traditional parties has grown as backing for Nigel Farage has crashed. The increasing pressure on the Brexit Party leader to stand down his candidates to avoid splitting the Tory vote and letting Jeremy Corbyn into No 10 contributed to a plunge in the party’s support from 11 per cent to just six.
If the headline results were converted through a uniform swing into Commons seats, they would put the Conservatives on 357 seats after the December
Labour leader’s personal ratings have plunged to historic lows
12 poll, with Labour on 208 seats and the Liberal Democrats on 21.
But with one in four voters expected to vote tactically to the benefit of either Brexit or Remain candidates – the highest rate of tactical voting in any Election – pollsters are very cautious about making seat projections.
The string of Brexit candidates calling for Mr Farage to call an Election truce with Mr Johnson has also had an impact on his leadership ratings: while 30 per cent of voters think Mr Farage is doing well at his job, 57 per cent think he is doing badly, an approval rating of minus 27.
Mr Johnson’s slow start to the campaign has seen his personal ratings slip from +2 per cent last week to -5 per cent this week; but Mr Corbyn continues his slide into historically low territory, down from -43 last week to -48 this.
Amid today’s claims that Labour’s spending promises would cost the country £1.2 trillion over the course of a parliament, the poll shows the Conservatives have a strong lead on the economy, with 48 per cent saying a Government led by Mr Johnson and with Sajid Javid as Chancellor would be best for our finances, compared with 28 per cent preferring Mr Corbyn in No 10 with John McDonnell as Chancellor.
The Tories also hold big leads on who the public think would ‘help the economy to grow’ – by 51 per cent to 30 – to ‘spend public money wisely’ (42 to 32) and ‘not saddle future generations with debt’ (35 to 26).
When people are asked whether the British economy would be ‘better or worse off if the Labour Party formed the next Government’, just 18 per cent say ‘better’ compared with 51 per cent who say ‘worse’.
Deltapoll interviewed 1,518 British adults online between November 6 and 9, 2019. The data has been weighted to be representative of the whole UK.