Labour has 33-point lead over Conservatives, YouGov poll finds

Labour has widened its lead over the Conservatives to 33 points after days of financial turmoil following Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini-Budget’, according to YouGov.

In a poll published by YouGov this evening, of 1,712 British adults, 54% of adults told researchers on Wednesday and Thursday that they would back Labour in a general election – compared to just 21% who said the same for the Conservatives.

Lab: 54 (+9)
Con: 21 (-7)
Lib: 7 (-2)
Green: 6 (-1)
Ref: 4 (+1)

YouGov joins others predicting a large lead over the Tories for the Labour Party. Survation puts the opposition’s lead at 21 points, Deltapoll recorded a 19-point lead for Labour and Redfield & Wilton Strategies put the gap at 17 points.

The polling followed the Chancellor’s mini-Budget last week, during which he announced sweeping tax cuts including scrapping the 45p rate of income tax, abolishing the cap on bankers’ bonuses and abandoning the planned rise in corporation tax.

Since the statement, his first in the job, sterling has hit its lowest ever level against the US dollar and the government has been criticised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned that its policies will result in greater inequality.

The Chancellor is expected to use a statement on November 23rd to announce measures to persuade the markets that he can get the UK’s public finances back under control. Treasury sources confirmed that ministers from all departments are to be asked to find “efficiency savings”.

Rachel Reeves today urged Tory MPs to back Labour’s demand for parliament to be recalled early to reverse the measures in the mini-Budget, declaring that those who do not will be “complicit in this reckless bout of economic self-harm”.

General secretaries of 18 trade unions and the TUC called on Liz Truss and her Chancellor to give a “cast-iron assurance” that they will not make cuts to public services amid fears of a “crippling round of austerity this November”.

The latest research also came shortly after the end of the Labour Party’s annual conference, during which Keir Starmer announced that his party would create a publicly owned energy company – Great British Energy – if elected.