Rishi Sunak’s election campaign has been dealt another hammer blow as a new poll shows Labour’s lead is at its highest level since Liz Truss’s premiership.
A survey by Opinium has Sir Keir Starmer’s party up four points to 45 per cent, with the Tories down two to 25 per cent, putting Labour on course for a landslide victory.
The poll, conducted between 29-31 May at a time of turmoil in Labour’s campaign, suggests that the prime minister’s eye-catching announcements on mandatory national service and tax cuts for pensioners have failed to land with voters.
Elsewhere, Sir Keir attempted to draw a line under the party’s row over Diane Abbott standing again in her London constituency.
He heaped praise on the veteran MP, the first black woman ever elected to parliament.
“Although I disagree with some of what she says, in terms of the battles she has been through and the terrible insults she has had to rise above, I have actually got more respect for Diane than she probably realises,” he said in an interview published in The Observer.