Rishi Sunak faces more poll woe as even viewers of GB News, the opinion-led TV network with Tory MPs as presenters, would rather see the Labour Party in government than his Conservatives.
Since it launched in 2021, the channel has paid a number of current and former Tory MPs to front shows, notably Jacob Rees-Mogg. Husband and wife Conservative MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies have their own programme, as does Lee Anderson, who was a Conservative when he was given the gig but has since defected to Reform UK.
But this doesn’t appear to have done the governing party much good.
A JL Partners poll of more than 500 current and recent GB News viewers found that Labour holds an 11-point lead over the Tories, or by 39 per cent to 28 per cent. Keir Starmer’s party has also seen its vote share among GB News viewers increase by 13 points in the past five years, while the Tories’ support has fallen back from 42%.
The Conservatives were also only just ahead of Reform UK, which polled 20 per cent. Underlining how Reform is eating into the Tory vote, the poll also revealed that 26 per cent of GB News viewers who voted Conservative in 2019 have now switched to Richard Tice’s party. Tice is another GB News presenter.
The GB News stable also includes Nigel Farage and former Labour MP Gloria De Piero.
Recent polls of the broader electorate have seen Labour’s consistent lead over the Tories stretch to 20-points. Meanwhile, the party is on course to lose more than 400 seats at next month’s local elections, according to a Conservative peer.