Support for Labour is collapsing across the country as Jeremy Corbyn lurches from one crisis to the next, a new poll has revealed at the end of a disastrous few days for the party.
The new YouGov poll shows the Conservatives are pulling ahead in almost every region of the country, including many traditionally leave-voting Labour heartlands.
The poor performance in traditional areas could see a large number of seats in the Midlands and the North transfer across from Labour to the Conservatives.
Jeremy Corbyn, pictured campaigning in Leeds today, left, could see heartland areas turning blue in next month’s election if the current polling proves correct. In the East and West Midlands, pictured top left and top right, support for the Labour Party has almost halved over the past two years
According to the Telegraph, Andy Cook, chief executive of the Centre for Social Justice said: ‘We’re serving up evidence that low-income Britons make up a big voting bloc in our swing seats. The party leaders need to win them over and, on this evidence, they have a mountain to climb.
‘No one comes out well in our survey with most poorer voters having been forgotten by their local canvassers and MP.
‘The Labour Party can only muster support from just over a third of the poorest voters and they see Labour as the most out-of-touch of the lot. The evidence shows a major swing from Labour’s target voters to the Brexit Party, who seem to take slightly smaller bites out of the Conservatives.’
It comes at the end of a dismal week for Mr Corbyn, which has seen the resignation of his deputy Tom Watson, a string of election candidates caught in controversy, a full-frontal attack from the Jewish Chronicle, as well as Rabbi Jonathan Romain savaging the party’s battle with anti-Semitism.
And there was fresh woe for Labour last night when former Home Secretary David Blunkett blasted his party’s ‘anti-Semitism and thuggery’, while frontbencher Marsha De Cordova admitted claiming a Remembrance Sunday wreath on expenses last year.
The latest YouGov poll of 11,500 voters measured parties level of support in regions across the nation and compared it to the same figure for 2017.
The survey asked voters who they would vote for if there was a general election tomorrow.
The results showed Labour support has plummeted by 25 points in the North West to 30 per cent, giving the Conservatives a narrow three point lead.
However, in a poll of polls conducted by Electoral Calculus, Boris Johnson will be returned to Downing Street next month with a 96-seat majority and 373 seats.
Labour, who had 262 seats in 2017 will slump to 182, with the Liberal Democrats on 25, SNP on 48, the Greens on one and Plaid Cymru on three.
The pollsters believe Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party will not win a single seat.
In Northern Ireland, it is predicted Emma Emma Little Pengelly of the DUP will lose his Belfast South seat to the Alliance Party.
In Yorkshire, the same pattern has handed the Tories a five-point lead, giving Boris Johnson’s party a lead in every English region apart from London and the North East, despite support for both main parties dropping across the country with more than a month to go until the vote.
The Brexit Party’s support has also increased, leading many top Brexiteers to call for Nigel Farage to pull the party out of the election to avoid splitting the Tory vote and potentially handing seats to Labour despite their dismal poll figures.
In Yorkshire and Humberside, the predicted Labour vote share is now just 29 per cent, compared to 49 per cent in 2017
Support for Corbyn’s Labour has plummeted by 25 points in the North West to 30 per cent, while the Conservatives sit on 33 per cent
In the North East, the Brexit party is currently polling on 19 per cent, up from the 4 per cent that the UKIP party recorded at the 2017 general election
London, which voted heavily to Remain, has shown the Lib Dems to have gained a ten-point boost to 19 per cent, while Labour remain the largest party on 39 per cent despite a 16-point drop since 2017
In Yorkshire and Humberside, the predicted Labour vote share is now just 29 per cent, compared to 49 per cent in 2017.
In the North East, Labour’s support has gone from 55 per cent to 32 per cent, in the North West from 55 per cent to 30 per cent and in the East Midlands, from 41 per cent to just 22 per cent.
In Wales, Labour support has plummeted from 49 per cent to 29 per cent, leaving them just one point ahead of the Conservatives on 28 per cent.
In London, which voted heavily to Remain, the Lib Dems gained a ten-point boost to 19 per cent, while Labour remain the largest party on 39 per cent despite a 16-point drop since 2017.
The figures will come as a boost for Mr Johnson, whose party now leads the polls in former Labour heartlands.
But many Tories fear that with the Brexit party surging Mr Johnson could still be deprived of an outright majority – leaving Mr Corbyn to form a coalition that would overturn Brexit.
The independent poll, the first of its kind comparing voters’ thoughts between now and 2017, shows the Brexit Party presents a serious threat to Mr Johnson’s hopes.
Although Labour support is collapsing across the country, the Brexit party is polling as high as 19 per cent in some regions.
The YouGov poll shows that the South East favour the Conservatives, which sit on 41 per cent, over Labour, which has 16
The South West appears to favour the Conservatives, according to the YouGov poll, with the party on 41 per cent and Labour dragging behind on 17
In Wales, Labour support has plummeted from 49 per cent to 29 per cent, leaving them just one point ahead of the Conservatives on 28 per cent
Scotland shows the SNP with a comfortable lead, second to the Conservatives and with Labour trailing more than ten points behind
The East of England, which is a Tory stronghold and has MPs including Brandon Lewis and Elizabeth Truss, sees the Conservatives on 45 per cent, while Labour have just 17
The East Midlands too is looking likely to favour the Conservatives at the next election, as the pool shows the party on 45 per cent to Labour’s 22
The neighbouring region of the West Midlands is closer however, with the Tories on 43 per and Mr Corbyn’s party polling at 23 per cent
Friday’s new YouGov poll findings showed the Brexit party is recording high poll ratings in a string of regions across the country.
In the North East, the Brexit party is currently polling on 19 per cent, up from the 4 per cent that the UKIP party recorded at the 2017 general election.
In Yorkshire and Humberside, the Brexit Party’s vote share is now on 14 per cent, up from the 3 per cent that UKIP got two years ago. In Wales, the Brexit party is on 15 per cent and in Yorkshire and Humber, the party is on 14 per cent.
At the same time, the current predicted Tory vote share has fallen in every region since the 2017 election result.
The figures will come as a boost for Mr Johnson, whose party now leads the polls in former Labour heartlands. Pictured: Waiting for Corbyn in the O2 in Manchester of Thursday
The poll is most disastrous for Labour, with the party’s support collapsing across the country as a new survey reveals the party is the most ‘out-of-touch’ when speaking for the poor.
The Centre for Social Justice’s findings showed just 36 per cent said they would support Labour – down 10 percentage points since April.
The party also got embroiled in to an extraordinary crisis yesterday after a string of its election candidates found themselves caught in controversy.
In the space of 24 hours, three have been forced to quit while nine others came under pressure to step down after controversial remarks they had made in the past were exposed.
The row is highly embarrassing for Corbyn at the end of the first week of the election campaign.
In total, a dozen Labour candidates have faced controversy in the past seven days.
In a day of disaster for the party, one candidate was forced to quit after allegedly referring to a Jewish councillor as Shylock.
Another came under pressure to stand down after sharing misogynistic posts about female politicians.
A third has been accused of defending her adviser who wrote about a ‘Jewish final solution’ by suggesting that ‘the context somewhat excuses the remarks’.
Former home secretary Lord Blunkett blasted the party on Friday for the ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘thuggery’ which makes him ‘despair’.
Writing in the Telegraph, Lord Blunkett said: ‘The behaviour of the hard-Left within the Labour Party – the anti-Semitism, the thuggery, the irrational views on security and international issues, and the lack of realisation that you have to embrace a big tent of people in order to win – certainly makes me despair.
‘But it also makes the likelihood of an all-out Labour majority in this general election extraordinarily slim. The political landscape right now is completely different to what the hard-Left would have you believe.
‘We are in a 1983 situation here, not a 2017 one – with not only the Lib Dems and the Greens, but the Brexit Party, the Tories and the SNP all seriously vying for traditional Labour votes.’
The 1983 election saw Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party secure a sizeable majority after votes for the opposition were split between Labour and the Liberal/SDP Alliance.
The Labour peer, who was an MP for 28 years, said the likelihood of Corbyn winning a majority was ‘extraordinarily slim’.
But he urged moderates within the party to ‘stay and fight’ to ensure the ‘voice of reason’ prevailed, following deputy leader Tom Watson’s decision to stand down.
Rabbi Romain said the prospect of a Corbyn-led government made him feel unsafe.
Former home secretary Lord Blunkett (right) and Rabbi Jonathan Romain (left) have blasted the party over anti-Semitism
He added: ‘For those of us in the Jewish community, it is a deeply worrying prospect.
‘Indeed, I believe that Corbyn poses such a threat to Britain’s Jews that it is incumbent on all Jewish leaders to speak out.’
Their comments top off a bruising week for the party which has also seen two of its former MPs urge voters to back the Tories instead.
Ian Austin and John Woodcock said they would be supporting the Conservatives as they did not believe Mr Corbyn was fit to be in Number 10.
And on Friday, Dame Margaret Hodge – one of the most prominent Jewish figures in Labour – declined to endorse the Opposition leader as prime minister.
In a further blow for the leader of the opposition, Marsha De Cordova, 43, who is the shadow minister for disabled people, faced criticism for claiming £17 back after she bought a Remembrance Sunday poppy wreath, and Jackie Schneider was lambasted for branded the Queen a ‘welfare scrounger’ on social media.
Marsha De Cordova, (pictured) 43, who is the shadow minister for disabled people, claimed £17 back after she bought the floral tribute
Tory MPs and military leaders blasted De Cordova, the MP for Battersea, who is a close ally of Corbyn.
She has since issued a grovelling apology, telling The Sun it was an ‘administrative error’ and she is ‘deeply sorry’.
It comes just days before the country will fall silent to mark Remembrance Sunday.
Tory MP Bob Stewart, a British Army officer who became the United Nations Commander during the Bosnian war, slammed the claims saying it was ‘totally wrong’.
He said: ‘Remembrance Sunday is about remembering those who have fallen in battle for whatever country they fought for as young men and women. It is wrong to claim for a wreath to commemorate.’
Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British Army officer and former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, also criticised the action, saying MPs should pay for poppies themselves.
He said: ‘MPs should recognise the importance and significance of the poppy and pay for it themselves rather than making the taxpayer fork out.’
John O’Connell, chief executive at the TaxPayers’ Alliance branded it ‘petty’.
Marsha De Cordova apologised for the claim, which was marked under ‘office costs’ in November last year.
She also insisted it was lodged with The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) as a mistake.
She said: ‘This should not have happened and was the result of an administrative error.
‘I am deeply sorry and I would like to put on record my utmost respect for all those who have sacrificed their lives in armed conflict.’
Jeremy Corbyn’s dirty dozen: The 12 would-be Labour MPs who have ALL been mired in controversy in just 24 hours – from calling a Jewish councillor a ‘Shylock’ to threatening to ‘put a gun to Theresa May’s head’
The latest row is highly embarrassing for leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) at the end of the first week of the election campaign
Labour was embroiled in an extraordinary crisis yesterday after a string of its election candidates found themselves caught in controversy.
In the space of 24 hours, three have been forced to quit while nine others came under pressure to step down after controversial remarks they had made in the past were exposed.
The row is highly embarrassing for leader Jeremy Corbyn at the end of the first week of the election campaign, where he was trying to launch a major policy drive centring on multi-billion pound pledges to expand free childcare, free schools an meals and statutory maternity pay.
In total, a dozen Labour candidates have faced controversy in the past seven days.
In a day of disaster for the party, one candidate was forced to quit after allegedly referring to a Jewish councillor as Shylock – the Jewish moneylender in The Merchant Of Venice.
Another came under pressure to stand down after sharing misogynistic posts about female politicians.
A third has been accused of defending her adviser who wrote about a ‘Jewish final solution’ by suggesting that ‘the context somewhat excuses the remarks’.
Yesterday, Liz Truss, minister for women and equalities, said the revelations were a ‘shocking indictment’ of Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
She added: ‘Some of the views held by these official Labour candidates are completely unacceptable. They are not fit to serve in Parliament. Why will he not show some leadership, take action and tell them to stand down?
‘He promised a kinder politics yet his feeble response to this crisis in his party show that he is simply not fit to lead.’
But a Labour source said: ‘We’ve conducted extensive due diligence checks on candidates and we have taken swift and robust action where necessary.
‘In a snap general election hundreds of candidates have to be immediately selected and staff have worked incredibly hard to conduct due diligence in time.’
Gone: Gideon Bull was forced to quit the race for Clacton
The candidates are:
Called Jewish politician Shylock
1. Gideon Bull was forced to stand down after allegedly referring to a Jewish councillor as Shylock.
He pulled out of the race for Clacton in Essex, after admitting that he had used the anti-Semitic slur.
But it emerged that Labour knew about the anti-Semitic comments before selecting Mr Bull, a councillor in Haringey, north London, as a candidate. The party has not commented on the case.
He said it was ‘entirely false’ that he had been referring to councillor Zena Brabazon, but admitted using the term during a private meeting.
Incredibly, he claimed he did not realise that the Shakespearean villain was Jewish. Shylock is a ruthless Jewish moneylender and principal antagonist in The Merchant of Venice.
Misogynistic web posts
2. Ian Byrne came under pressure to quit after sharing misogynistic posts about female politicians. The councillor, who was personally backed by Jeremy Corbyn, shared a post about Baroness Mone saying: ‘Hit the **** where it hurts’, LBC reported.
Mr Byrne, candidate for the safe seat of Liverpool West Derby also posted a Facebook message saying Tory housing minister Esther McVey was a ‘b****** and soon to be gone’.
Backed by Corbyn: Ian Byrne with his party leader at the general election rally on Thursday
Despite the comments, he was selected as a candidate and has not been dropped by the party. On Thursday, the Labour leader gave a speech in Manchester with Mr Byrne sat behind him.
Mr Byrne was also forced to apologise for making jokes about the Paralympic Games looking like ‘a night out in Salford’ and for making a homophobic slur in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, he called Prince William a ‘horse faced t***’.
A statement from Mr Byrne read: ‘I am deeply sorry for the inappropriate and offensive language from the shopfloor that I used several years ago on social media and would not use today.’
Accused over ‘final solution’
3. Laura McAlpine has been accused of defending her chief campaigner after he wrote about a ‘Jewish final solution’.
Miss McAlpine, who is aiming to unseat Conservative Robert Halfon in Harlow, is said to have supported aide Brett Hawksbee, according to Jewish News.
This was despite one party official warning he had ‘breached IHRA (the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism) in almost every single way possible’.
Anti-Semitism storm: Laura McAlpine (centre right) reportedly backed aide Brett Hawksbee (far left) who called for a ‘final solution’
Mr Hawksbee blogged in September 2018 that some in Israel would be happy to see a ‘pogrom in Gaza and the West Bank, a Jewish final solution to the Palestine problem’.
One email circulated to Labour staffers, which was obtained by the Jewish News, said: ‘She [McAlpine] isn’t happy with the first line [of the apology] because she doesn’t want to be disloyal to someone who ‘organises so much for her and who she is on the phone with three times a day’.’
The email continued: ‘She also echoed his view that the context somewhat excuses the remarks.’
Yesterday, Miss McAlpine said: ‘I did not and would not defend Brett Hawksbee’s remarks in this blog.
‘Brett’s comparison between Israel and the Nazis was unacceptable and last year he made a full apology for making such a comparison.’
Union: Kate Osborne. Osborne shared an image appearing to show Theresa May with a gun to her head
Shared Theresa May gun image
4. Kate Osborne shared an image appearing to show Theresa May with a gun to her head, prompting calls for Labour to block her as a candidate.
Ms Osborne, who is expected to be parachuted into the safe seat of Jarrow, appeared to post the ‘deeply concerning’ image on Facebook during the 2017 general election campaign.
It depicts the former prime minister wincing while being threatened with a weapon to stop saying the words ‘strong and stable’, according to the HuffPost.
Ms Osborne, who is a member of Unite the union’s executive council, apologised unreservedly, adding that as a woman she was ‘extremely concerned’ about the misogyny her colleagues received.
Frances Hoole, who was selected for Edinburgh South West, was accused of posting a threatening tweet aimed at her rival, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry
Sent threatening tweet about rival
5. Frances Hoole, who was selected for Edinburgh South West, was accused of posting a threatening tweet aimed at her rival, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry.
The tweet had the slogan ‘bang and the Terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist] is gone’.
The term Terf is used to insult equality campaigners who do not agree that transgender rights take precedence over women’s rights.
Miss Cherry, who brought the court case against the Government for proroguing Parliament, shared the tweet, saying she had received a death threat and a ‘storm of misogynistic abuse for defending women’s rights’.
Miss Hoole told the Edinburgh Evening News: ‘I am genuinely really sorry I posted it. I’m sorry about the violent content. It was silly, I posted it without looking very hard at it.’
In light of the tweet Scottish Labour’s executive committee, removed her as the candidate.
Fought to keep strip club open
6. Sophie Wilson campaigned with strippers against the closure of a lap dancing club, prompting calls for her to be dropped as a candidate. Opponents of the Spearmint Rhino club in Sheffield claimed the venue was associated with ‘sexual exploitation’ of women.
But Miss Wilson, 23, who has been selected to fight Rotherham, called those who wanted to close the club ‘so gross’ and said they were ‘trashy SWERFS’ (sex worker-exclusionary radical feminists).
Sophie Wilson campaigned with strippers against the closure of a lap dancing club, prompting calls for her to be dropped as a candidate
Campaigners against the club include Sammy Woodhouse, a victim of the Rotherham child sex grooming gangs, who accused Miss Wilson of ‘disgusting’ behaviour.
Miss Wilson, a city councillor in Sheffield, insists that she was supporting the rights of those working at Spearmint Rhino and not backing the exploitation of women or club bosses.
Child abuse comparisons
7. Kate Ramsden stood down in Gordon, Scotland, after it emerged that she had compared the actions of Israel to those of a child abuser.
In a blog post, she also reportedly said anti-Semitism claims against Jeremy Corbyn were ‘orchestrated by the wealthy Establishment’. Miss Ramsden apologised and said: ‘I can see that many Jewish people have been hurt by my words. That was never my intention.’
Kate Ramsden stood down in Gordon, Scotland, after it emerged that she had compared the actions of Israel to those of a child abuser
‘I’ll celebrate Blair’s death’
8. Zarah Sultana is still under pressure to quit after she said she would ‘celebrate’ the death of Tony Blair. The candidate for Coventry South also referred to a Jewish student as ‘YT’ – from the slang ‘whitey’, which is used to disparage white people.
Earlier this week it was revealed that she said she would ‘celebrate’ the deaths of Mr Blair and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Miss Sultana apologised but refused to stand down as a candidate.
Zarah Sultana is still under pressure to quit after she said she would ‘celebrate’ the death of Tony Blair
Ali Milani, the Labour candidate seeking to oust Boris Johnson made anti-Semitic comments online
9/11 Conspiracy theories
9. Ali Milani, the Labour candidate seeking to oust Boris Johnson, made anti-Semitic comments online and promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories. The Momentum-backed candidate, who is challenging the Prime Minister for his seat in Uxbridge, west London, used the tag ‘#jew’ and the word Zionist as an insult in messages.
And he claimed the September 11, 2001, terror attacks were ‘false flag’ operations, suggesting the US government was behind them. He said later: ‘I made some remarks I’m deeply embarrassed by and have unreservedly apologised for.’
Compared Blair with Hitler
10. Jane Aitchison compared celebrating the death of Tony Blair to cheering the death of Adolf Hitler. The candidate for Pudsey in West Yorkshire made the controversial comments as she tried to defend Miss Sultana’s comments about the former prime minister.
Miss Aitchison said: ‘I apologise for causing offence, but I said in the interview that I did not condone anyone celebrating the death of anyone, and I do not.’
Jane Aitchison compared celebrating the death of Tony Blair to cheering the death of Adolf Hitler
Matt Uberoi was jailed for a £120,000 insider trading scam with his dentist father in 2009
Jailed for £120,000 insider trading
11. Matt Uberoi was jailed for a £120,000 insider trading scam with his dentist father in 2009.
Despite his one-year sentence for the scam, he is running in Chelsea and Fulham. When contacted by the Daily Mail, Mr Uberoi said he would have been fully within his rights to keep his conviction secret.
He and Labour both said he had instead been ‘up front and honest’ about his jail term to the local and national party and had learned from his mistake. He already serves as a councillor.
‘Holocaust monger’ messages
12. Kate Linnegar posted messages about ‘Holocaust mongers’ and liked a post entitled ‘How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis’.
She also liked another post which described the Jewish State as a ‘so-called country’ and defended former London mayor Ken Livingstone as a ‘decent man’.
Miss Linnegar propagated material which claimed allegations Labour was biased against Jews were a ‘smear campaign’, and a post which ‘compared the actions of Israel to Nazi Germany’.
Despite this, she is standing as a candidate in North Swindon.
Last night she said: ‘I sincerely apologise for having liked or shared these posts in the past and for the offence this has caused.’
The Labour Party added: ‘Kate made full apologies and demonstrated her understanding of why the posts were wrong.’
Kate Linnegar posted messages about ‘Holocaust mongers’ and liked a post entitled ‘How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis’