Tory lead over Labour has narrowed to five points, according to latest YouGov poll

The Conservatives’ lead over Labour has narrowed to five points, according to latest polling from YouGov.

The poll – the first since Monday’s terror attack in Manchester – shows that the Tories now lead Labour by 43% to 38%, compared to a previous poll that had the two parties at 44% and 35%.

YouGov said it could appear that the Conservatives had lost support in the wake of the atrocity in Manchester, but it was important to put the latest figures in chronological context.

It said its previous Sunday Times poll was carried out last Thursday and Friday, just after the Conservatives launched their manifesto but before their u-turn on the so-called ‘dementia tax’.

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YouGov said while it did not have voting intention figures to assess the impact of the manifesto, it had asked about the public’s favourability towards the parties and their leaders.

When the questions were last asked in April, just after the election was called and the Tories were 23 points ahead, the ratings showed PM Theresa May and her party with much better favourability ratings that opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.

But when the same questions were re-run last Monday, there had apparently been a slump for May and the Tories and an improvement for their rivals.

Following the Manchester Arena bombing on Monday, YouGov re-ran the favourability questions and said the data showed an improvement in figures for both Theresa May and the Conservatives, while Labour and Jeremy Corbyn’s numbers had dipped slightly.

But they found the former had not returned to their previous, higher levels and the latter had not fallen to their previous, lower levels.

The research company said: “So while our Sunday times results from last week showed a nine point Conservative lead and our newly published poll for the Times shows a five point Tory advantage, it is worth bearing in mind that a lot has happened in the past week, both in the world – with the manifesto and Manchester – and among voters.

“It has been a highly unusual few days in an election campaign, arguably unlike any other in history. There is no way of guessing what will happen in the two weeks to polling day but we will be able to be more confident about how voting intention settles down over the next few days.”

(Top pictures: Getty)