Labour's polling lead falls to lowest since June 2023

Labour's lead over the Conservatives has fallen seven percentage points, to the lowest it's been since June 2023, a poll showed on Wednesday. This comes after Sir Kier Starmer's party scrapped a green spending target, and struggled against anti-semitism allegations.

Polls have consistently shown Labour are on course to win this year's general election and assume power in the UK by beating the Conservatives fairly comfortably. However, their numbers have taken a fall, and their lead has dropped to 12 percentage points.

The latest poll, conducted between Feb. 9 and Feb. 11, estimates that Labour would take 41% of the vote, down five points from two weeks before. Support for the Conservatives rose by two points to 29% in the same period.

The Conservatives have been in power for 14 years, with latest Prime Minister Rishi Sunak being appointed by the party in October 2022, running unopposed in the leadership election following Liz Truss resigning.

It's been widely considered that Labour will trounce the Conservatives in this year's general election. However, these latest poll results show that there are some question marks against Sir Kier Starmer.

Savanta Political Research Director, while cautioning against reading too much into a single poll, said: "This poll still serves as useful a reminder as any that Labour's lead - while consistently high for many months - is not infallible. Voters have not quite made up their mind about Keir Starmer's Labour Party, and doubts could well be creeping back in."

In recent days, Labour has come under fire for a number of their party members, including Azhar Ali, who is vying for election in Rochdale, Munsif Dad, and Graham Jones, making or attending meetings where anti-semitic language was used. With the latter allegedly saying "f***ing Israel", and claimed that UK citizens who volunteer for the IDF "should be locked up".

Before that, Starmer backed down on his promise to invest £28bn a year in green initiatives, blaming the Conservatives for "crashing the economy", meaning they had to scale back their investment pledge.

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