Top Tory MPs would lose seats in election says new poll that shows Labour ahead

If the results of a YouGov poll were repeated at a General Election, Labour would win a 182-seat majority after Tory support plummeted following Friday’s mini-budget

Sir Keir Starmer will accuse the Tories of losing control of the economy as a new poll suggested Labour has opened up a 17-point lead over the Conservatives.

Sir Keir will vow to get the UK “out of this endless cycle of crisis” and quote Sir Tony Blair to dub Labour the “political wing of the British people” after a mini-budget that tanked the pound saw Labour establish their greatest lead since YouGov began polling in 2001.

The Labour leader will outline an ambition to “turn the UK into a growth superpower” as he argues that his is the party of financial responsibility after the markets plummeted in response to the Tories’ plans to borrow billions to pay for massive tax cuts.

Adam Bienkov, political editor of Byline Times, said on Twitter that if the 17-point lead was repeated at a General Election it would lead to a 182-seat Labour majority.

He wrote: “Conservative MPs losing their seats would include Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Iain Duncan Smith, Penny Mordaunt, Steve Baker, Grant Shapps, Andrea Leadsom, Andrea Jenkyns and Dominic Raab.”

The market turmoil was labelled “clown show” economics by one senior Labour frontbencher, according to The Times.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting mocked Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as he called Friday’s statement a “kami-Kwasi budget”, while describing Prime Minister Liz Truss as “a deep-state Liberal Democrat, deliberately crashing the Conservative Party — there is no other plausible explanation for the clown show we’ve seen last week”.

Sir Keir’s direct quoting of Sir Tony, the last Labour leader to win a general election, also seeks to put further distance between himself and his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

The Conservatives accused Labour of “another relaunch full of vacuous statements and empty promises, with no details”, as they claimed “no one knows what Starmer stands for”.

“Starmer is a weak leader with no plan to grow the economy,” a Tory spokesman said.

Sir Keir’s strategy to boost growth includes a green prosperity plan to create one million new jobs in towns and cities across the country.

He was committing to begin this mission, to also include bringing down energy bills, raising living standards and tackling the climate crisis, within 100 days of forming a government.

To achieve this, he will say, requires “a different way of working”, developing “the biggest partnership between government, business and communities this country has ever seen”.

Sir Keir will argue “we cannot afford to miss out” on the opportunity to lead the world in renewable energy, electric vehicles and harnessing new hydrogen power.

Sir Kier was set to attack the Conservatives on the economy by saying: “What we’ve seen from the Government in the past few days has no precedent.

“They’ve lost control of the British economy – and for what? For tax cuts for the richest one per cent in our society.”

The Labour spokesman argued the party would borrow less than the Tories, after Mr Kwarteng revealed the biggest package of tax cuts for 50 years.

Sir Keir is pledging to reverse the abolition of the top rate of tax for the nation’s wealthiest, but was supporting the reduction of the bottom rate to 19p in the pound.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said her fiscal rules set out that increased borrowing is permitted during national emergencies.

Sir Keir will declare that Labour will get the UK “out of this endless cycle of crisis with a fresh start, a new set of priorities and a new way of governing”.

“We should never be left cowering in a brace position, worrying about how to get through a winter. It’s time for Britain to stand tall again,” he will add.

The YouGov polling for The Times suggests widespread public dissatisfaction with the Government’s mini-budget on Friday, with 72% of voters – including 69% of those who voted Tory in 2019 – opposing Mr Kwarteng’s move to axe the top rate of 45% tax for those earning more than £150,000.

The polling, conducted over the weekend, suggests Tory support had dropped by four points to 28% in the wake of the budget and Labour’s had surged by five points to 45%, with the Lib Dems unchanged on 8%.