Kemi Badenoch takes Conservatives to Poll Lead

No party which suffered the sort of defeat the Conservatives went though earlier this year can afford to complacently assume that it is coasting back to power on the basis of a couple of polls with tiny leads, well within the margin of error - no matter how hard the new government is straining every sinew to make everyone who voted for them regret it and has notched up the largest and most catastrophic precipitous drop in support in polling history.

Nevertheless, the first poll of Kemi Badenoch's leadership does show a lead over Labour.

The Independent reports that "the Conservatives have taken a two-point poll lead over Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in Kemi Badenoch’s first week as leader.

The new Tory leader has taken the party to 29 per cent of the vote, according to pollsters More in Common, with Labour behind on just 27 per cent. It is the highest rating for the Conservatives since February.

It marks a remarkable fall from grace for Labour, which in July was elected to power in a landslide victory over Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives."

"But, as the fallout from Rachel Reeves’s historic £40bn tax grab grows, Labour’s poll rating has continued to fall."

And, just days after succeeding Mr Sunak as Tory leader, Ms Badenoch is enjoying a poll bounce.

The Independent’s weekly tracker poll by Techne UK on Friday revealed that in the week after she took over from the former PM, Ms Badenoch cut two points from the Labour lead in the polls.

It comes as Sir Keir’s government faces a mounting backlash over the Budget’s inheritance tax raid on farmers and the increase in employer national insurance contributions.

Britain’s biggest business organisations have accused the government of “betrayal” over Budget plans to hike employer national insurance contributions from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent despite a manifesto pledge not to increase taxes for working people.

The majority of the increase will be passed on to workers through lower wages.

You can read the full Independent report on the poll at:

Tories take narrow poll lead over Labour in Kemi Badenoch’s first week as leader | The Independent