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Bombshell poll shows Rishi Sunak on course to hold just 80 Tory seats

Rishi Sunak is on course to lose more than three quarters of the Tories’ seats, the survey of 18,000 voters suggests

Archie Mitchell
Wednesday 14 February 2024 20:14 GMT
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Ignore poll predicting huge Tory wipeout, says Keir Starmer

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The Tories are facing an electoral wipeout that would leave them with just 80 seats, the lowest ever total for the Conservative Party, a bombshell new poll shows.

Rishi Sunak is on course to lose more than three quarters of the Tories’ seats, the survey of 18,000 voters suggests.

As well as spelling near-wipeout for the Conservatives, the shock poll shows seventeen ministers are set to lose their seats, including Jeremy Hunt, Grant Shapps, Penny Mordaunt, Gillian Keegan and Mel Stride.

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will face off at a general election this year
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will face off at a general election this year (PA Wire)

The poll, by Find Out Now and Electoral Calculus, showed Sir Keir Starmer on course to win an even bigger landslide than Sir Tony Blair in 1997, with a majority of 254.

And the survey, reported by The Daily Mirror, showed Labour’s support among voters at 42 per cent, with a 20-point lead over the Tories on 20 per cent.

The survey was conducted using the MRP (multilevel regression and poststratification) method that successfully forecast the 2017 and 2019 elections.

It found voters top concerns were health, the economy and immigration, while the most popular policies included building more homes and nationalising utility firms.

In total, Labour would win 452 seats, 249 more than currently, with the Conservatives losing 285 seats to hold just 80.

The Liberal Democrats and Green Party are also set to make gains, while the poll suggested the SNP could lose eight seats to a resurgent Scottish Labour.

The poll will offer some much-needed comfort for Sir Keir after he faced two of the most difficult weeks of his leadership of the Labour Party so far.

He has been dogged by claims that he flip-flops on key decisions after the fudged announcement that he was dropping Labour’s key £28bn per year green spending pledge.

Labour instead replaced the measure with plans to spend £23.7 billion over the course of the next parliament.

He has also been rocked by an antisemitism scandal after Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali was recorded making antisemitic remarks.

After some of Mr Ali’s remarks, claiming Israel had allowed the October 7 Hamas terror attacks to go ahead, Sir Keir sought to stand by the Labour candidate.

But, after facing a media storm, and further remarks being made public, Sir Keir dropped his support for Mr Ali.

Another Labour candidate was then accused of antisemitism for being recorded at the same meeting appearing to refer to “f***ing Israel” and appeared to say that Britons who volunteer to fight for the Israel Defense Forces “should be locked up”.

It all came as a separate poll by Savanta showed Labour’s lead over the Tories falling to its lowest since last June.

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