Boost for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour take eight-point poll lead over Conservatives
2 min read
Labour have taken an eight-point lead over the Conservatives, according to the pollsters who came closest to predicting the surprise general election result.
In a fresh boost for Jeremy Corbyn, Survation put support for his party on 45%, up one point on their last survey a month ago.
Backing for the Tories has fallen one point to 37%, with the Lib Dems also down one point to 6%, with Ukip and the Greens unchanged on 4% and 1% respectively.
Labour's lead is their largest with Survation since four years ago, when Ed Miliband was still leader.
If the results of the poll were repeated in an election, it would give Labour an overall majority and put Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10.
The new findings are a remarkable turnaround since Theresa May called the surprise election in April. At that time, the Conservatives enjoyed a double-digit poll lead of up to 24 points.
Survation correctly predicted a hung parliament in their last opinion poll before the election in June. The pollster - who carry out surveys for the Mail on Sunday - also correctly predicted a Tory majority in 2015, when most pundits forecast a hung parliament.
A spokesman for Survation said: "We’ve not seen such a lead for Labour in a Survation poll since late 2013. An 8 point lead would put the Labour party into overall majority territory if such vote share totals were reflected at the ballot box.
"Labour is indeed enjoying a decent lead over the Conservatives at the current time. There’s no experimental methodology at work here, the methodology is that which proved accurate at the election."
The poll findings come as Mrs May contends with stalled Brexit talks, a Cabinet which is deeply divided over the UK's withdrawal from the EU and threats from the DUP to bring down her administration if she makes concessions to Dublin on the future of the Irish border.
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