TORIES STRETCH LEAD TO 18 POINTS OVER LABOUR
THE Tories have stretched their lead over Labour to a massive 18 points, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.
The survey by pollsters ICM, just days before two by-elections, gave the Tories 44 per cent share of the vote with just 26 per cent for Labour.
Support for the Tories was up by two points compared with a previous ICM poll two weeks ago while Labour was down by one point.
The findings were being seen as a fresh humiliation for Labour’s hard-Left leader Jeremy Corbyn. His party is now as unpopular as it has ever been in the last 30 years.
The Tory lead has only been larger on three occasions since the poll was started in 1983, claims ICM. They include two polls shortly before Margaret Thatcher’s general election triumph over Labour under Michael Foot in 1983. The third was during Gordon Brown’s Labour premiership.
Ukip support was up one point to 13 per cent in the latest ICM poll, with Lib Dem down two points to 8 per cent and the Greens on 4 per cent.
Voters are due to go to the polls in parliamentary by-elections in Copeland, Cumbria, and Stoke-onTrent Central this Thursday. Both seats were vacated by Labour MPs.
ICM Unlimited polled 2,028 adults between last Friday and Sunday.
CONSERVATIVES are ahead of Labour by a vast 18 points say pollsters ICM, commanding a 44 per cent share of the vote. Theresa May’s firm handling of the Brexit issue since she became Prime Minister has clearly impressed the electorate.
Meanwhile Ukip has gained a point and now has a 13 per cent share.
This is more bad news for Labour who seem to be talking only to the dwindling band of party faithful.
It is not so many years ago that the two main parties were virtually neck and neck with little to differentiate them in the public’s mind.
How times have changed. The latest poll gives the Tories a lead not seen since the days of Mrs Thatcher at the time of her resounding victory over Michael Foot in 1983.