Blow For Rishi Sunak As Tory Poll Rating Slumps To Same Level As Liz Truss' Final Week In Office

The prime minister has managed to take his party's fortunes back to the days of his disastrous predecessor.
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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss went head-to-head for the Tory leadership in 2022.
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Rishi Sunak has been dealt another blow, with a new poll showing Tory support has slumped to the same level as the last week of Liz Truss’ chaotic time in office.

The Savanta survey, released this morning, put the Conservatives on just 25% - 18 points behind Labour, who are on 43%.

It is the lowest level the pollster has recorded for the Tories since October 2022, just days before Truss quit Downing Street after just 49 days as prime minister. 

According to Sevanta, if the result was repeated at the general election, Keir Starmer would win a landslide Commons majority of 262.

That result would even eclipse Tony Blair’s 1997 victory, which handed Labour a 179-seat majority.

The poll was conducted last weekend, suggesting Jeremy Hunt’s Budget bid to give the Tories a boost by cutting National Insurance has failed.

It also confirms a tracker poll, which earlier this week showed support for the Tories had fallen back to the same level it was at during Truss’ disastrous premiership.

Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta, said: “The last time we recorded the Conservatives vote share this low, their leader resigned within the week.

“Not since the final days of prime minister Liz Truss have so few of the UK public expressed a willingness to vote Conservative.

“This is just one poll, yes. But what should concern Rishi Sunak - less than two months from crucial local elections - is that these numbers fit part of a wider trend.

“Our latest voting intention isn’t a sudden drop, it looks like a long-term downwards trend that the prime minister can’t seem to reverse.”

The figures will pile further pressure on the prime minister, after a disastrous start to the week.

On Monday, former Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson defected to the right-wing Reform UK party.

And on Tuesday, the PM was finally forced to admit that alleged comments by the Tories’ biggest donor about Diane Abbott were “racist”.

 

Savanta interviewed 2,032 UK adults aged 18+ online on 8-10 March.