The race for public opinion on who the voters believe will be the best Prime Minister is now neck and neck with Rishi Sunak narrowing the gap to five points against Sir Keir Starmer. According to the Techne UK fortnightly best PM tacker poll, Mr Sunak is now on 37 percent (down one) while Starmer is on 42 percent (down two).
The results are a major boost for the Tories who, as a party, are stuck at 28 percent 17 points behind Labor in the main weekly tracker poll.
The closeness of the best Prime Minister poll suggests that they could still pull off a shock victory in a presidential-style election and that Starmer may still be a weakness for the Labor Party.
The survey of 1,624 voters over December 21 and 22, showed that Mr. Sunak is already more popular with voters aged over 55 with a 45 percent to 38 percent lead in the 56-to64-year-old category and a 42 percent to 39 percent in 65 and older.
But Sir Keir is a long way ahead in younger voters scoring 44 percent to 29 percent among 18-to-34-year-olds and 49 percent to 32 percent among 35-to-44-year-olds.
Claims by some critics that Mr. Sunak is not sufficiently strong enough of Brexit does not affect his standing among Leave supporters who prefer him by 58 percent to 25 percent.
Unsurprisingly, Sir Keir won with Remainers by 56 percent to 33 percent.
Michela Morizzo, chief executive of Techne UK, warned that both leaders should be concerned by falling numbers in the poll and pointed to an increase in support for Reform UK in the main party tracker poll to 7 percent as a sign of voter dissatisfaction.
She said: “Our Techne tracker poll today shows Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives closing the gap slightly by one point, now giving Labor a 17 point lead.
“Whilst still a dominant lead for Sir Keir Starmer’s Party the overall feeling is that both major parties are struggling to maintain interest particularly given the terrible cost of living and energy worries all hard-working Britons are facing.
“This reduced interest is particularly noticeable with improved support for the smaller parties especially Reform UK who this week posted their highest poll return with 7 percent of national vote share.”
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