Boost for Sunak as poll finds voters prefer him to Starmer as PM

2022-11-01

Boost for Rishi Sunak as poll finds voters prefer him to Sir Keir Starmer as PM – while Labour’s lead slips by nine points in a week (but is still enough for a huge majority)

Rishi Sunak handed early boost as poll finds voters favour him over Keir Starmer
Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey finds 41% think Mr Sunak is a better PM
Poll also shows Labour’s lead over Tories has fallen by 9 points since last week
But Sir Keir’s party still on course for huge majority at a general election

Rishi Sunak has been handed an early boost during his first week in No10 after Britons were shown to favour him over Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.

A new poll by Redfield & Wilton Strategies found two-fifths of voters (41 per cent) thought Mr Sunak is a better PM for the UK at this moment.

This compared to one-third (37 per cent) who backed Sir Keir as the best premier when asked to choose between the pair.

Mr Sunak has moved ahead of Sir Keir in a head-to-head comparison among voters since succeeding Liz Truss as PM last Tuesday.

He also received a further boost as the survey revealed Labour’s lead over the Tories had fallen by nine points since last week.

But half of voters (50 per cent) still said they would support Labour at a general election.

This is compared to little more than a quarter (27 per cent) who said they would back the Conservatives.

Labour’s poll rating fell by five points since the last Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey, while Mr Sunak’s Tories were up by four points.

Yet, with Sir Keir’s party still riding high and the Conservatives languishing, Labour remain on course for a huge majority at a general election.

Under an Electoral Calculus prediction, Labour at 50 per cent and the Tories at 27 per cent would give Sir Keir a majority of more than 280 seats in the House of Commons.

A new poll by Redfield & Wilton Strategies revealed Labour’s lead over the Tories had fallen by nine points since last week

The survey found two-fifths of voters (41 per cent) thought Rishi Sunak is a better PM for the UK at this moment than Sir Keir Starmer

More than half of voters (54 per cent) think there would be a Labour Government if a general election were held in the next six months

There were signs Mr Sunak has begun to claw back the Tories’ competency rating, which plummeted during Liz Truss’s disastrous spell in No10

The Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll showed the Tories are still struggling to retain the support of those who voted for them at the 2019 general election.

The survey found 89 per cent of those who voted Labour in 2019 said they would vote Labour again, while just 52 per cent of those who voted Conservative in 2019 said they would vote Conservative again.

But there were signs Mr Sunak has begun to claw back the Tories’ competency rating, which plummeted during Ms Truss’s disastrous spell in No10.

The Government’s net competency rating stood at -34 per cent in the latest Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll, up 30 points from last Sunday.

Altogether, 15 per cent find the Government competent and 49 per cent find the Government incompetent.

Ahead of Mr Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement on 17 November, nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of voters cited the economy as one of the three most important issues that would determine how they would vote in a general election.

This was above healthcare (53 per cent), education (30 per cent), taxation (26 per cent), and immigration (22 per cent).

More than two-fifths (45 per cent) of respondents believed a Labour majority would be the most likely outcome if a general election were held in the next six months.

Less than one-fifth (16 per cent) expected a Conservative majority.

A further nine per cent expected a Labour-led minority Government and 11 per cent expected a Conservative-led minority Government.

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