40% of Labour voters don't think Jeremy Corbyn would be a better Prime Minister than Theresa May

40% of Labour voters do not believe that Jeremy Corbyn would make a better Prime Minister than Theresa May, according to new research.

Pollsters YouGov asked the British public who they thought would make the best Prime Minister, with 40% saying that Theresa May would be best for the top job.

19% said Jeremy Corbyn would be the best PM, trailing behind the 39% who said they didn’t know.

Looking at Labour voters specifically, 60% said that Mr Corbyn would be the best Prime Minister and 5% thought Mrs May would be best. The rest said they did not know or refused to say.

Conservative voters were much more supportive of their own party’s leader, with 90% saying that Mrs May would make the best PM.

This week YouGov also asked the public which party they would vote for in an election.

41% said they would vote Conservative, 34% said they would vote Labour, 10% said Lib Dem and 16% said other.

The results paint a gloomy picture for Labour, suggesting that support for the party is marred by ambivalence towards its leader and that their calls for an early General Election to break the Brexit deadlock could be misguided.

Chris Curtis, research manager at YouGov, said that the numbers didn’t necessarily mean that Labour would be trounced in an early General Election.

He said: “Two years ago I would’ve said this is a real problem for Labour that their leader is less popular than the party.

“But during the last election campaign there was a huge surge of support for Corbyn over a few weeks and we could see the same thing happen again.”

A YouGov conducted just before Theresa May called an early General Election in April 2017 found that only 15% of people thought Mr Corbyn would make the best Prime Minister.

Support for the Labour leader then skyrocketed throughout the election campaign, and the same poll conducted the day after the vote found that 39% thought he would make the best leader of the country – level pegging with Mrs May also had support form 39%.

Since the election Mr Corbyn’s support among young voters has plunged, attributed to his refusal to support a second Brexit referendum.