Labour should join the Tories in ignoring the polls

With less than two weeks until election day, Keir Starmer’s high command is so concerned about the effect their 20-point lead in opinion polls might have on the result, they are considering banning them during the final stretch of future campaigns, says Andrew Grice

Protest voting: Starmer’s advisers believe opinion polls predicting a massive Labour majority might give some a clear conscience to support other candidates (Getty/Datawrapper)

The Conservatives fear the opinion polls which are shaping the election campaign will encourage more of their many disenchanted supporters to switch to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on the grounds the Tories are certain to lose anyway. “This election is all about the polls, not the policies,” groaned one senior Tory.

However, Labour’s high command is privately worried about the polls, too. It is not losing sleep about ministers’ warnings about a Labour “supermajority”, but it is fretting that surveys predicting a massive majority might give progressive voters with doubts about Keir Starmer’s lurch to the centre an excuse to vote for the Green Party, pro-Palestinian independents or George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain. Others might not bother to vote. “People should remember that we haven’t won yet; we need every vote,” one Labour insider said.

Some Labour aides fear a record low turnout in modern times. They worry that MRP polls, which survey many more people than conventional polls and use socio-demographic data to predict the result in every constituency, might overstate how many 18-34-year-olds will turn out.