Labour closing gap on Tories amid coronavirus fallout, polls show

New polls show Labour is closing the the gap on the Tories as the government faces criticism for its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Polls from Opinium, Deltapoll and Survation show Labour has reduced the margin to between two and three points thanks to the crisis.

Opinium’s survey put Labour on 40% with the Conservatives on 43%, while Deltapoll has the Tories on 41% with Labour on 38%.

And Survation’s poll showed the Tories’ lead has narrowed from 11 points to just two.

Opinium’s poll showed Labour’s vote share had reached its highest levels since January 2019, with the Conservative vote share its lowest since Boris Johnson became prime minister.

Elswhere, the survey found that almost half of respondents disapprove of the way the Conservatives have dealt with the coronavirus crisis.

After the three polls were published on Saturday, Downing Street said Boris Johnson will use a speech later this month to commit to speeding up spending on roads, hospitals and research.

The new infrastructure projects focus on normally Labour-voting industrial regions in the north that backed him at the December election, according to Bloomberg.

Adam Drummond, head of political polling at Opinium, said: “The public are starting to lose confidence in the government's ability to handle the crisis.

“Approval of how they are handling things has dropped from 65% at the beginning of lockdown to just 34% today.

“Public appetite for lifting the lockdown measures remains minimal, with even Conservative voters more likely to say that things are being released too quickly than too slowly.

“Meanwhile, Keir Starmer's 'constructive opposition' positioning is continuing to pay off, with the Labour leader drawing almost level with Boris Johnson on the 'best prime minister' question as well as overtaking the PM on a series of leadership attributes such as competence and trustworthiness.”

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