GMB: Susanna Reid warns Jeremy Hunt ‘you haven’t got long’
A Tory MP has warned that the party is “locked in a death spiral” as the latest weekly tracker poll has revealed that Labour’s lead grew last week after Jeremy Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement.
The Techne UK survey of 1,640 voters revealed that among those who know how they will vote, Labour now leads the Conservatives by 25 points, up one from last week.
The polling was done after the Chancellor had completed his Autumn Statement which had included measures to help reverse the Tories’ steep popularity decline.
Measures like protecting the triple lock guarantee on pension increases, cutting two percent off National Insurance contributions and record business tax relief seem to have failed to have convinced voters to support the Tories again.
Instead, the party lost one point, going down 21 percent while Labour remained the same on 46 percent.
READ MORE: Tory MPs warn migration figures ‘disaster’ is the ‘trigger’ for leadership vote
Even more concerning for the Downing Street strategy team is that a mere 39 percent – less than one in four – of Conservative voters from 2019 would now back the party in an election, the lowest it has been since Liz Truss was forced out of office last year.
And one normally core group of Conservative voters, pensioners aged 64-and-over now support Labour by 40 percent, to 27 percent despite having their state pension protected.
The poll was taken before the disastrous net migration figures today which has left some Conservative MPs wondering if they have reached rock bottom yet.
One MP said: “The Autumn Statement just didn’t cut it.”
Another said: “We are locked in a death spiral, nothing seems to be able to turn things around with this leadership. The poll ratings have been awful.”
A former cabinet minister warned: “We are in danger of going from a ‘change’ election to a ‘Tories out’ election which will be much worse.”
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Tory MPs are debating whether to try to launch a confidence vote in Mr Sunak in the wake of his reshuffle last week which some saw as a “declaration of war on the right of the party” with the sacking of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary.
The survey showed that the Lib Dems were up one on 12 percent, Reform UK on 8 percent and the Greens on 7 percent.
According to the prediction site Electoral Calculus, if this poll result were to reflect a general election it would leave the Conservatives on just 51 seats, only narrowly ahead of the Lib Dems on 42. While Labour would have a massive majority of 376.
Techne UK Chief Executive Michela Morizzo said: “This has been another important, but at the same time, difficult week for Rishi Sunak and his Conservative Government.
“Against a backdrop nationally of gas prices set to go up in the New Year and continued cost of living pressures for all hard working families, the Chancellor delivered his Autumn statement on Wednesday this week offering one of the biggest tax giveaways in recent years.
“One might normally expect that such a generous budget would be met by increased support for the governing party, but this week our tracker poll shows the Conservatives fall another point in national vote share to their lowest level in recent times, just 21 percent.”
She added: “Even with all the Chancellor’s tax cutting policies it remains clear the electorate struggle to trust the Government.
“People are searching for real changes in their daily lives and at first sight it seems that people think now it may be too late.
“But it will be important to see how the sentiment will change in the coming weeks, this will be the real turning point leading towards the next general election.”
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