Boris Johnson and the Conservatives have surged to a huge 17-point lead at the start of the general election campaign, a major poll revealed today.
The Ipsos MORI survey shows the Tories up eight points since September to 41 per cent, while Labour is marooned on 24.
At the same time, the Prime Minister’s personal scores have leaped, including for his handling of Brexit, while those of Jeremy Corbyn have stayed at rock bottom.
The findings are excruciating for the Labour leader, suggesting that his fence-sitting on Brexit has turned into a disaster.
Eight in 10 people think he has done a bad job at handling Brexit, indicating that neither Leave nor Remain supporters admire his performance.
And just over half of Labour supporters think Mr Corbyn has handled Brexit badly.
Meanwhile more than eight in 10 Tory backers are pleased with the way Mr Johnson has handled Britain’s departure from the European Union.
Mr Corbyn kicked off Labour’s campaign with a rally in Battersea this morning where he vowed to get Brexit sorted within six months and hit out at “tax dodgers, dodgy landlords, bad bosses and big polluters.
The Prime Minister embarked on a one-day dash taking in a school, a hospital and a police unit, promising to get Brexit done and deliver on the people’s priorities, including the NHS, education and crime.
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson launched her party’s slogan Stop Brexit. Build a brighter future and dispatched an ad-van to tour it around her rivals’ constituencies of Uxbridge and Islington.
Key findings revealed exclusively in today’s Evening Standard include:
Voters would divide as follows in an election today: Conservative, 41 per cent; Labour, 24 per cent; Liberal Democrats, 20 per cent ; Brexit Party, seven per cent; Greens, three per cent. It is the highest Conservative share since June 2018 and the 17-point Tory lead is the biggest since April 2017.
Mr Johnson has the best personal scores of any leader since 2017, with 46 per cent satisfied and 44 dissatisfied a net score of plus 2.
Conservatives are overwhelmingly happy with their leader, with 80 per cent satisfied and nine per cent dissatisfied.
Mr Corbyn has failed to improve since last month’s record-breaking low personal scores. Just 15 per cent of voters are happy with his performance and 75 per cent are unhappy a net score of minus 60.
Labour voters are divided about their leader, with 46 per cent satisfied and 49 per cent dissatisfied.