Frontbencher says 4th-place Labour is facing ‘devastation’

A LABOUR frontbencher has admitted the party faces a ‘devastating’ election result after it slumped to fourth place in an opinion poll.

Fewer than one in five voters – only 18 per cent – are planning to back Jeremy Corbyn’s party in the next election.

It is the party’s lowest rating since polling began in the 1940s. Labour’s support has fallen by two points after a week in which their Brexit divisions have been exposed.

Responding to the YouGov survey, health spokesman Jon Ashworth told ITV’s Peston: ‘I don’t believe that would be the result at a general election. If that was a result at a general election, it would be devastating for the Labour Party.’

Despite being in the midst of a leadership election, the Tories climbed two points to 24 per cent. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is up one point to 23 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats also up one, to 20 per cent.

Labour are fourth in the polls for the first time. The only previous occasion when Labour has scored 18 per cent came in May 2009, as Gordon Brown’s government grappled with the financial crisis.

YouGov found only 25 per cent of Remain voters will back Labour, compared to 40 per cent in April and 48 per cent at the start of the year.

The party has also been abandoned by Leavers, with 8 per cent backing them, down from 21 per cent in January.

Labour MP Wes Streeting, a critic of Mr Corbyn, said: ‘Polls are sometimes wrong. But only weeks ago, actual votes were cast where Labour achieved our worst national election result since 1910 and where four in ten Labour members voted for other parties. The response has not reflected the gravity of our situation.’

Asked for his reaction to the survey, Mr Corbyn said: ‘I never comment on opinion polls, I never have and I never will.

‘What I do know is that I go out all the time listening to people, as well as talking to them about what our ideas are.’