Labour leads Tories by 33 points in poll

A SHOCK poll last night gave the Labour Party a 33-point lead over the Conservatives.

The YouGov survey put the opposition on 54 per cent, with the Tories trailing on just 21 – the biggest gap between the parties since the 1990s.

Support for the Conservatives has dropped by seven points in just four days after last week’s tax-cutting miniBudget triggered market turmoil and paved the way for further interest rate rises.

Growing numbers of voters who supported Boris Johnson at the last general election are switching allegiance to Sir Keir Starmer, the poll found.

Just 37 per cent of those who voted Conservative in 2019 intend to stick with the party, suggesting a wipeout if the country went to the polls now. The proportion saying they will change sides has risen from 8 per cent to 17 per cent in just a week.

Last night Tory grandee Sir Charles Walker told Channel 4 News: ‘It means if there was a general election tomorrow, we would be wiped out. We would cease to exist as a functioning political party.’

Experts said the latest opinion poll put Sir Keir clearly on course to be the next Prime Minister. YouGov’s Patrick English told The Times that the realignment now under way was ‘comparable’ to that which led to Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.

James Johnson, who ran polling for Theresa May in Downing Street, said: ‘There is no point pretending anything else. This is terminal.’

But some Tories urged the PM to stick to her guns. Marco Longhi, the MP for North Dudley, who backed Miss Truss in the leadership campaign, said: ‘I fully support and back the Prime Minister and her plans.

‘We need to be brave and do whatever we need to grow the economy.’