Dismal polling puts Street well behind Labour in mayoral race
THE first credible voting poll for the West Midlands mayoral election shows Conservative Andy Street losing by a huge margin and Reform’s candidate Elaine Williams snatching third place.
Labour’s Richard Parker would win by 14%, polling 42% of the vote if the poll took place last week, according to pollsters Redfield and Wilton Strategies. But both Labour and Conservative insiders sounded a strong note of caution, saying the results of this first poll did not match their own intelligence and feedback on the doorstep.
“We think it will be much, much closer,” said insiders with both teams.
“The only poll that matters is on May 2,” added one.
But reality is starting to bite for Street’s staunch supporters. The findings appear to confirm that the Conservatives are in for a dire election year, that the leadership of Rishi Sunak has worsened their standing and right-wing Reform UK could emerge as the third party, overtaking the Lib Dems and Greens.
Andy Street has been one of the Conservatives’ rare success stories in a difficult year, retaining his personal standing despite the chaos swirling in Westminster.
First elected in 2017, he is bidding for his third term. He recognises that re-election will depend on him successfully persuading enough non-Tory voters to choose him as an individual over his affiliation to the beleaguered party.
Speaking in recent hustings events, he has highlighted the times he has stood up to party chiefs over HS2, donations and racist comments.
But if the polling is to be believed, it is all to no avail. The poll results showed:
Richard Parker (Labour) 42% Andy Street (Conservative) 28%
Elaine Williams (Reform
UK) 13%
Siobhan Harper-Nunes (Green) 7%
Sunny Virk (Liberal Democrat) 7%
Akhmed Yakoob/other candidates 2%.
While Mr Street’s re-election prospects look slim on this polling, he is in a considerably stronger position than the Conservative Party as a whole when West Midlands voters were asked how they would vote in a General Election. This shows the Conservatives trailing by 28%. The polling put Labour on 52%, Conservatives on 24%, Reform UK 12%, Liberal Democrats 7%, Green Party 5% and Other 1%. Just 51% of voters in the West Midlands who voted Conservative in 2019 say they would vote Conservative again.