UK’s Labour has biggest lead over PM Boris Johnson’s conservative party since 2013

Labour has taken its biggest lead over the Tories since 2013 in the wake of the ‘partygate’ scandal. The poll by Opinium gave Labour 41% of the vote share compared with 31% for the Conservatives.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains under pressure after the British public delivered a lukewarm response to his apology for parties including a ‘bring your own booze’ invitation at Number 10 in May 2020.

Voters who supported Johnson over his stance in “Brexit” have also started to distance themselves from him. Of the Leave voters who backed him in 2019, 46 per cent say he should resign, in a signal of his dwindling support.

The survey also revealed that 78 per cent of the electorate believe government staff broke lockdown rules to host parties, while only eight per cent say officials abode the harsh measures. Three quarters of voters believe the prime minister himself broke the rules, while 64 per cent say he is not telling the truth about the scandal. 

The online poll of 2,005 people was conducted between January 12 and 14. Author Jonathan Coe tweeted: “At this point someone needs to count up the number of parties and the number of apologies and make sure they match. Most of us have lost track.”

In a message to his constituents, Tim Loughton, Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said: “I have regretfully come to the conclusion that Boris Johnson’s position is now untenable, that his resignation is the only way to bring this whole unfortunate episode to an end, and I am working with colleagues to impress that view on No 10.”

Earlier this week, opposition leader Keir Starmer insisted the PM “broke the law” and then “lied about what had happened”. Mr Starmer said he wanted people to be able to “live their lives as normal” and never again face “tough restrictions on our lives, our livelihoods and our liberties”.