Labour opens up 10-point lead over Tories as pressure mounts on Johnson over lockdown party

PM falls further out of favour after party apology

Labour has posted a ten-point lead against the Tories, according to the latest YouGov poll.

The Tories saw arguably their most tumultuous day of Boris Johnson’s leadership on Wednesday as the prime minister admitted to having attended a party in the Downing Street garden when the UK was still in lockdown.

A poll conducted by YouGov for The Times put the Tories on 28 per cent, with Labour ahead on 38 per cent.

Labour were up one point, while the Tories were down five points.

In the same poll, Sir Keir Starmer was far ahead on who would make the best prime minister. Just 23 per cent said Mr Johnson would, while Sir Keir was on 35 per cent.

Just 6 per cent of people said they thought Mr Johnson had been honest in responding to questions about Downing Street parties.

And 60 per cent said they thought he should resign, including 38 per cent of people who voted Conservative in 2019. A separate poll taken on Tuesday by Savanta ComRes found that two-thirds thought he should resign, including 42 per cent of Tory voters.

It has been bad news in the polls for the Tories since the first allegations of parties in government during lockdown emerged.

Meanwhile, Labour has been able to take advantage of the government’s poor standing with the public.

Sir Keir Starmer took several jabs at Mr Johnson’s “ridiculous denials” and said the British public thought he was “lying through his teeth”.

The Liberal Democrats have also seen a slight boost amid the recent furore, gaining 3 points in the YouGov poll to put them on 13 per cent.