Andrew Cornwell United Kingdom

UK: 17 point lead for Tories in latest YouGov survey

There is little change in voting intentions in this week’s YouGov poll for The Times, released today. The ruling Conservatives move up one percentage point, widening their lead over Labour (unchanged) to 17 points, equal to the widest gap reported by YouGov so far this year.

UKIP sheds one point, with the Lib Dems and nationalists unchanged.

 

Highbury Fields, London, England. Photo: Andrew Cornwell. All rights reserved.

 

In the wake of an historic by-election defeat at Copeland in Cumbria, which was in the news prior to fieldwork on this poll, Jeremy Corbyn continues to endure miserable personal ratings. On the classic ‘best Prime Minister’ question, he lies far behind Theresa May with both genders, and among every age category, every social grade and in every region of Britain. He has a deficit among both ‘Remain’ and ‘Leave’ supporters, reflecting his recent difficulties in establishing a credible position on the critical Brexit issue. Both Lib Dem and UKIP supporters find May more to their taste and the only group he leads with are intending Labour voters, by 53 to 11 per cent – however, even here, 37 per cent give a ‘not sure’ response.

Overall, May leads Corbyn by 49-11 per cent, scores unchanged since the previous week’s survey.

On the regular YouGov question assessing the government’s performance in negotiating Britain’s EU exit, there is a slight improvement for the Tories. 34 per cent rate the government as doing ‘very well’ or ‘fairly well’, up one point; 44 per cent reply ‘very badly’ or ‘fairly badly’, down two points. The balance of 22 per cent say they ‘Don’t Know’, up one point.

Voting intentions for General Election in per cent (change on previous YouGov poll in brackets)

  • Conservatives 42 (+1)
  • Labour 25 (nc)
  • Liberal Democrats 11 (nc)
  • UKIP 12 (-1)
  • Greens 4 (+1)
  • SNP / PC 6 (nc)
  • Other 1 (nc)

Fieldwork: 27.02-28.02.2017. Released: 01.02.2017. Participants: 1666. Method: Online, weighted by likelihood to vote. Full tables on the YouGov website.

 

Photograph: Highbury Fields, London, England. Photo: Andrew Cornwell. All rights reserved.

 

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