Brexit Party overtakes Conservatives for the first time in general election poll

The Brexit Party has overtaken the Conservatives for the first time in a new general election poll.

The ComRes survey of voting intentions has put Nigel Farage’s party one point ahead of the Tories, in what would be the Conservatives’ worst-ever result in the survey.

Such support would see the Brexit Party win 49 seats, becoming the UK’s second biggest party after Labour.

ComRes chairman Andrew Hawkins described the poll as a "disaster", saying: "If the Conservative leadership contenders are not careful, there will be no party for them to lead."

The prediction, reporting in the Sunday Telegraph, comes after local council elections saw the loss of nearly 1,300 Tory councillors.

The Conservatives are also predicted to suffer a wipeout in the European elections in the next fortnight.

According to the ComRes poll, the Tories would lose 46 seats to the Brexit Party, including Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and party chairman Brandon Lewis, as well as Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith and Sir Graham Brady.

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The ComRes poll results are in line with a recent poll by Opinium, which showed the Brexit Party just one point behind the Conservatives.

According to Opinium, Labour would garner 28% support, followed by the Tories on 22% and the Brexit Party on 21%.

Adam Drummond, head of political polling at Opinium, said it was "remarkable" that the recently-formed party could be on the cusp of overtaking the party of government.

He said: "It would be reasonable to assume that this would fall back in an actual general election campaign, but the fact a party that is less than six months old is now vying with the governing party for second place is remarkable.

"The Tories' reliance on Leave voters seemed sensible in the aftermath of the referendum.

"But raising expectations of the kind of deal the UK could get and using the phrase 'no deal is better than a bad deal' so relentlessly was always going to open the party up to this kind of challenge once those expectations could not be met."

Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 2,004 UK adults over 18 years old between May 8 and 10 and results have been weighted.