LONDON — Less than 100 days into his Labour administration, Keir Starmer’s poll lead over the Conservatives he trounced at Britain’s general election has slumped to a single point.
That’s the stark finding of a survey of 2,023 adults conducted by pollster More in Common and shared with POLITICO London Playbook.
The survey, conducted over the weekend, has Labour on 29 percent to the Tories’ 28 percent. That’s the lowest Labour lead More in Common has recorded since it began conducting voting intention polls last year, and is down from a 4 point lead last month.
Labour bagged a 10-point lead over the Conservatives in terms of national vote share at July’s general election. Starmer’s party entered government with a landslide majority after 14 years in opposition, and the Tories have yet to settle on a new leader.
The new More in Common poll shows Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK — which has set its sights on Labour after eating in the Conservative vote — polling third at 19 percent, with the centrist Liberal Democrats on 11 percent and the left-wing Greens polling at 7 percent.
It makes for grim reading as Starmer chairs his first Cabinet Tuesday following a wide-ranging shake-up of his struggling Downing Street team.
Sue Gray resigned as the PM’s chief of staff on Sunday after weeks of negative briefing in the media about poor government communications, pay for special advisers and internal disputes in Downing Street.
Labour has been hit by numerous difficulties since coming into office. Chancellor Rachel Reeves faced criticism for removing winter fuel payments from all but the poorest pensioners despite the policy not appearing in the party’s election manifesto. Labour blames a poor fiscal inheritance from the outgoing Tories, and is looking to an October budget to reset the dial.
Starmer has faced scrutiny for accepting donations from a Labour peer to fund clothing and glasses, as well as the use of accommodation during the election campaign. Alli was briefly granted a Downing Street pass after Labour entered power.
“This is a young government, there is bound to be mis-steps in the first few months,” said Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh Tuesday morning.
“Very few of us have served in government before. We have got 14 years of opposition and 14 years of a juggernaut to turn around,” she told Times Radio.
