The Conservatives are on course for their worst general election result in history, according to a bombshell poll.
Rishi Sunak faces leading the party to electoral oblivion by losing as many as three-quarters of their seats.
The Mirror today launches its election tracker that will reveal what the country really thinks every month in the run up to polling day. The survey conducted by Whitestone Insight shows Labour is 20 percentage points ahead of the Tories.
Andrew Hawkins, who leads the pollster, said the results suggested “the country has decided that it is simply time for a change”.
According to the poll, Labour has the support of 44% of voters with the Tories trailing on 24%. Reform is on 13% and Liberal Democrats on 8%.
A seat predictor run by Electoral Calculus suggests these vote shares would translate into Labour picking up 469 seats, giving Keir Starmer a 288-seat majority. The Tories would lose 263 of the 365 seats they won in 2019, leaving them with just 102. That would be an even more seismic result than Tony Blair’s historic landslide victory in 1997 when he secured a 179-seat majority as John Major picked up 165 seats.
Our poll found Labour is more popular than the Conservatives among all age groups except for over-65s. The biggest gap is among those aged 25 to 34, where Labour has a 44 percentage point lead. The Tories have a four point lead when it comes to over-65s. Almost four in 10 (39%) of voters said they wanted the general election to take place by the end of July, compared to 35% who said before the end of this year.
Mr Hawkins, the Chief Executive of Whitestone Insight, said the poll “confirms the hole that the Conservatives are in”. “It would appear the country has decided that it is simply time for a change,” he added.
The PM chickened out of holding the general election a fortnight ago at the same time as local elections as he struggles to move the dial. Mr Sunak was handed the keys of No10 in October 2022 without a single vote being cast by Tory MPs, party members or the public. He has binned the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto as well as the pledges he made when he ran against Liz Truss to be leader.
On his first day as PM he promised to lead a government with “integrity, professionalism and accountability” at every level, but he has faced a series of sleaze scandals. Last January, Mr Sunak said he’d cut NHS waiting lists, but they have actually gone up. He also pledged to stop the boats, but the numbers making dangerous Channel crossings have been higher so far this year.
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Mr Starmer on Thursday kickstarted his general election campaign by unveiling the six first steps he will take to change Britain if he becomes PM. The key promises – which will appear on an election pledge card – include sorting the economy, cutting NHS waiting times and securing the border.
Mr Starmer also is vowing to set up publicly-owned Great British Energy, tackle anti-social behaviour and recruit 6,500 new teachers for our schools. In a letter to Mirror readers, he wrote: “With your support, I’m ready to step up and change Britain.”
Whitestone Insight interviewed 2,024 adults in Britain online on May 15 and 16.