Tories close in on Labour in the polls as Badenoch’s appointment takes votes off Farage

The weekly tracker poll by Techne UK for The Independent shows that the Tories have taken six points off Labour’s lead since Kemi Badenoch became leader

Kemi Badenoch appears to have inspired a surge in the polls for the Tories after the latest weekly tracker poll by Techne UK for The Independent revealed she had cut Keir Starmer’s lead to just one point.

The new Tory leader has taken six points off Labour’s lead in the last fortnight since she took over from Rishi Sunak as Labour has struggled to fight off criticism about Rachel Reeves’ record-breaking tax raising Budget.

With businesses, charities and farmers all attacking Labour over the £40bn of extra taxes, including a hike in employer contributions to national insurance and a change of the inheritance tax rules, Ms Badenoch appears to have capitalised in her short time in charge.

The Tory leader this week focussed on council tax hikes and national insurance in her questions to Sir Keir in PMQs with Labour still appearing to be suffering from a communication problem with its overall economic strategy.

Ms Badenoch is already making up ground on Labour (Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

But in an even bigger boost for Ms Badenoch, the Tories appear to have taken votes off Reform UK for the first time since the general election last July.

According to Techne UK, Labour are down one to 28 per cent, Conservative up two to 27 per cent, Reform down one to 17 per cent and Lib Dems and Greens unchanged on 13 per cent and 7 per cent.

One indicator of a slip in support for Mr Farage and Reform is that the Tory lead over them among 2016 Leave voters is up two points to 6 per cent.

The Conservative boost is still mostly seen among older voters though, with a 12-point lead over Labour among pensioners with the winter fuel payments row still continuing and an 8-point lead among 55 to 64-year-olds. But Labour still lead in all other age categories, although among 45 to 54-year-olds this has dropped to just one point.

Trust in the government though continues to slide with another drop of one point to 30 per cent this week.

Techne UK chief executive Michela Morizzo said: “This week’s tracker poll confirms the current trend since the election of Kemi Badenoch as leader of the Conservatives.

“Labour fall 1 point of national vote share to 28 per cent whilst the Conservatives jump forward gaining a further 2 points in national vote share in just one week.

“Badenoch’s party stands now on 27 per cent of national vote share - just 1 point now behind Labour. Perhaps more importantly the Conservatives continue to make inroads into Nigel Farage’s vote share too - Reform UK drop one point to 17 per cent of national vote share.

“It seems that with the newly elected leader Kemi Badenoch the situation is more balanced in terms of consensus. But for Labour it’s not so positive because, as I already said before, below 30 per cent after only a few months after a general election is a warning signal that something has to change and the government should deeply analyse what is happening to take appropriate action measures.”