Trouble for Truss as Labour surge to historic 33-point lead over Tories amid mini-budget turmoil
29 September 2022, 19:28 | Updated: 30 September 2022, 08:06
Labour has extended its lead to a historic 33-point over the Conservatives according to striking new poll figures, as a week of market turmoil put Truss' stabilising ability to the test.
According to the latest YouGov figures unveiled by The Times, Labour’s sudden surge in popularity comes amid fears of interest rate rises and soaring inflation.
A historic lead amid mini-budget chaos triggered by Kwasi Kwarteng’s sweeping tax cuts, the market's volatility even saw the Bank of England take steps to to quell investment fears.
Labour is now thought to hold the largest poll lead of any party across any poll since the late 1990s.
The figures show Tory support having dropped by seven points in the space of four days, with only 37 percent of 2019 Conservative voters planning to stick with the party.
An upshot that has been attributed to Conservative voters switching directly to the Tory party, the poll also shows support for Liz Truss falling by ten points in the same four day period.
According to the figures, 17 percent of voters who backed Boris Johnson in 2019 now say they would vote Labour.
It comes as the Chancellor refused to u-turn on his bold tax-cutting plans, today declaring the government was “sticking to the growth plan”.
Explaining the measures are “absolutely essential in resetting the debate around growth”, Kwarteng said the move is a shift in focus that’s set to deliver “much better growth”.
Both voters and markets, however, failed to agree. With only seven percent of voters believing the measures are affordable, 64 percent of voters labelled the announced cuts unaffordable.
The subject looks set to dominate the Tory party conference, which takes place in Birmingham next week.
