The Conservatives have hit their lowest vote share yet in a weekly tracker poll after voters apparently turned away from the party when Rishi Sunak called a snap election.
According to Techne UK, the Tories now have the support of just 19 per cent of voters – the first time the weekly tracker has had the party below 20 points.
It puts them 26 points behind Labour, whose leader Sir Keir Starmer has hailed the 4 July election as a chance to “turn the page”.
Sir Keir accused the prime minister of never having believed the Rwanda deportation plan would work after Mr Sunak conceded that flights would not take off before the election.
As the party leaders began their campaigns, Mr Sunak urged voters to back him over the government’s flagship immigration scheme.
He admitted planes carrying asylum seekers to Kigali would take off after polling day, but vowed the preparation had already happened.
Despite speculation about a Tory rebel effort to oust Mr Sunak and call off the election, one prominent critic said it was too late to get rid of the prime minister.
