The latest opinion survey conducted by polling site Number Cruncher Politics has put the Labour Party four points behind the Tories. The survey of 1,001 UK adults between September 4-8 has the Conservatives on 42 points compared to Labour on 38 percent. The Liberal Democrats were on six points, SNP five points and Green Party five points.
Reacting to the poll, Brexiteer and political commentator Tom Harwood took a swipe at Labour and insisted it is “really weird” for the opposition not to be ahead at this stage in the election cycle.
The poll comes more than a year after Boris Johnson replaced Theresa May as Prime Minister and six months since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
Mr Harwood wrote on Twitter: “HOW are Labour still behind?
“Boris has been PM for more than a year. We’re 3 years and 7 months away from the next election.
“At this point in the cycle, it’s really weird for the opposition to not be ahead.”
The Labour Party suffered its worst election defeat for almost 100 years in December 2019.
In April, Sir Keir officially replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader and the poll shows he has made significant gains but not enough to take the outright lead.
On March 26, the survey found Labour was polling on just 28 points and have since made gains of 10 points in just under six months.
In the same period, the Tories have lost ground and are 12 points behind from where the party was in March.
The latest YouGov poll is also bad reading for Labour and suggests the gap to the Tories is holding firm.
A survey conducted between August 24-25 put the Conservatives on 43 percent to Labour’s 36 – a gap of seven points.
This margin is greater than the previous poll taken a week earlier which put Boris Johnson on 40 percent and Sir Keir’s party on 38 percent.
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The latest figures show unemployment has increased by 62,000 to 1.4 million for the three months to July.
In the Commons this afternoon, Mr Sunak hinted at an extension to the furlough scheme amid growing calls from the Labour frontbench.
He said: “The Government has put in place a broad set of policies to support businesses and individuals through this crisis.
“The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme have supported more than 9 million and 2.7 million jobs and people respectively.
“As the economy reopens we must adjust our support to ensure people continue to get back to work, protecting the UK economy and people’s livelihoods.”
