UK’s Conservative Party is going through its toughest phase under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s watch, as more and more voters turn to the right-wing Reform Party.
A pollster has found that Sunak’s popularity has dipped below that of his short-lived predecessor Liz Truss, who put the embattled party in power the last time.
JL Partners in a ‘deep-dive analysis’ claimed that Sunak’s period had caused ‘an implosion’ within the Conservatives, thus handing over a clear edge to the Labour Party in the January 2025 elections.
Sunak’s miseries in numbers
According to the analysis by JL Partners, a mere 59 per cent of Conservatives who backed Boris Johnson in 2019 elections, are throwing their weight behind Sunak.
That’s down from 74 per cent in August and 63 per cent in September last year.
The pollster also claimed that the Tories have lost a whopping 520,000 votes since the prime minister’s speech at the Conservative Party conference at the beginning of October.
Reform Party gaining traction
The report revealed that 15 per cent of Conservatives who backed the party in the 2019 elections were now rooting for the Reform Party. This translates into a net loss of 1.5 million votes for the Tories.
It also said that five per cent of 2019 voters turned to the centrist Liberal Democrat party, while 18 per cent have now started backing Labour.
Sunak’s biggest challenge
Amongst all, the immigration policy remains Sunak’s biggest challenge as his plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was ruled unlawful by the UK’s top court last month.
Watch: Gravitas Plus: The untold story of Rishi Sunak
Now, it remains to be seen how far Sunak is willing to go to risk Britain’s commitments to international human rights law as he vows to erect a strong, hardline migration policy.
Silver lining
The only silver lining for Sunak that came out of the poll analysis is the ‘confusion’ of fence-sitters.
The poll said around 50 per cent of voters who say they are undecided are expected to vote Conservative on election day, a phenomenon which pundits often term ““shy Tory” effect.
“Rishi Sunak can count on some undecided voters to narrow the Labour lead, and the British public is hardly elated by the prospect of a Labour government,” James Johnson, the founder of JL Partners, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
“That’s where the good news for the Tories stops: They are in dire straits,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
