Starmer nearly doubles lead over Sunak in best PM tracker poll after winter of discontent

Starmer nearly doubles lead over Sunak in best PM tracker poll after winter of discontent

In a week where the two main party leaders set out their stalls for 2023 in new year speeches, struggling Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has seen his popularity fall further behind Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Rishi Sunak has received a new blow as he tries to put the problems of the Tories behind them in the new year with Sir Keir Starmer taking a significant lead in the poll over who would be the best Prime Minister. It comes after the weekly tracker poll for Express.co.uk by Techne UK showed the Conservatives had fallen a further four points behind Labour over Christmas to 21 percent.
According to the latest fortnightly poll on "best Prime Minister" Sir Keir has stretched his lead to nine points over Mr Sunak up from five just before Christmas
Mr Sunak dropped a point to 36 percent while Starmer gained three to 46 percent.
The same survey of 1,624 voters by Techne UK revealed that almost half (48 percent) do not believe Mr Sunak will even be Prime Minister by the end of this year after the Conservatives ditched his two predecessors - Boris Johnson and Liz Truss - in 2022.

Tory MPs are already plotting another potential coup if the local elections in May are catastrophic.

With the conservatives on their lowest share of the vote in three years, 25 percent, the new year has got off badly for Mr Sunak.
Even almost one in five (18 percent) Conservative voters from 2019 now believe Starmer would make the best Prime Minister as do more than a quarter (27 percent) of 2016 Leave voters.
The only age category Mr Sunak leads in is 55-to-64-year-olds where he has 43 percent to 41 percent over Starmer.

Among voters under 45 Sir Keir has around 50 percent to Mr Sunak's 30 percent.

The survey took place over the two days the party leaders made their pitches to the nation in speeches in East London.
While Sir Keir's microphone went dead at one point he still appears to have made a better impression than Mr Sunak's five point plan.

The pledge from the Prime Minister is to halve inflation, bring economic growth, reduce debt, sort out NHS waiting lists and stop the small boats packed with illegal migrants.

Downing Street sources have said Mr Sunak believes he can still win the election in 2024 and have pointed to his personal ratings being higher than the party's.

But the strategy of Mr Sunak winning in a presidential style contest could be in trouble if he continues to lose ground.

Polling experts believe that the strikes are beginning to bite and the nurses one is being blamed on the government in particular.

Michela Morizzo, chief executive of Techne, said: "Our poll will make for very grim reading indeed for the Prime Minister who will be hoping that the New Year will now signal a strong change in fortune for the Conservative party.