Stop Brexit party would beat Labour in a general election, poll claims

A new “Stop Brexit” party would beat Labour in a general election, a shock poll has claimed.

A party set up to subvert Britain’s withdrawal from the EU would get support from roughly half of all remain supporters, as well as 3.9 per cent of leave voters, leaving it with 25.9 per cent of the vote, according to YouGov.

Labour would, in this scenario, be left in third with 18.7 per cent of the vote. The survey was not conducted within constituencies so it is not certain what this would translate to in terms of the number of Commons seats.

The Tories would hold first place with 34.1 per cent vote share, YouGov.

This comes just after the Witney by-election, where the Liberal Democrats came second after a strong pro-EU campaign, with candidate Liz Leffman achieving a 19 per cent swing, and where the Labour candidate slipped to third place.

However, this could simply be a return to the Lib Dems’ often strong by election performances, which slumped during their time in the coalition government. Witney is part of the West Oxfordshire region which voted 54 per cent in favour of remaining in the European Union.

It is unclear how this Lib Dem strategy would play out in other, Eurosceptic, parts of the country.

With Labour’s recent strong showing in various by-elections as well as the London mayoral elections, there are several more positive indicators. In London, newly elected mayor Sadiq Khan won 57  per cent of the vote, when taking into account first and second preference votes, in a part of the country which voted 59.9 per cent in favour of remain.

Polling data for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been disappointing recently, and on the question of who would be the better prime minster, he trails May 23 per cent to 57 per cent. Many of Corbyn’s flagship policies are well rated by the general public, but the Conservatives are still trusted more to deliver in government.