The Labour Party has gained four points in the polls after Jeremy Corbyn tentatively backed a second vote on Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Following calls from several senior figures to put the vote back to the people the Labour leader said “it is now right to demand that any deal is put to a public vote” in a fractious shadow cabinet meeting.
He added that, “a ballot paper would need to contain real choices for both leave and remain voters” and that “this will of course depend on parliament”, which seems to have been warmly warmly received among voters.
The Labour Party has retaken the lead in the polls and is now up 4 points at 26 per cent of voting intentions as the post-European Parliament election boost for the Brexit Party fades.
The Brexit Party falls back to second place on 23 per cent (down 3-points) leaving Conservatives in third place on 20 per cent despite gaining 3- points.
Both major parties have thus recovered some of their losses in the wake of the EU Parliament elections with Remainers moving back to Labour and Leavers have slowly started drifting back to the Conservatives.
Boris Johnson was revealed to be the person most Conservative voters want to become Prime Minister, with 57 per cent saying he is the best candidate to negotiate with Europe.
The poll showed the party is now split between “loyal” and “lost” Conservatives, with Boris performing well among the Leave voters that the Conservatives have lost since 2017 and Hunt winning among ‘loyal Conservative Remainers’ who continue to stick with the party even now.
Jack Tadman, research manager at Opinium comments: “Boris Johnson continues to have the upper hand against Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative leadership race, at least if we go by how the two contenders are perceived by Conservative voters. Even on the Foreign Secretary’s relative strength of competence he does not have a decisive lead.
“However, Jeremy Hunt’s relatively broad appeal could be an antidote to Boris Johnson’s divisive presence. Electing Mr Johnson might be the Conservative Party’s quickest route to winning back voters from the Brexit Party, but it could permanently alienate former Conservatives that backed Remain at the same time.
“With 16 per cent of the vote, the Liberal Democrat’s have maintained their standing in the polls after their strong performance in the European Parliament elections. This demonstrates how robust their vote share can be unless both major parties respond to their demands as much as those of Nigel Farage.”
