By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) – Three British opinion polls published late on Saturday presented a bleak picture for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party, with one pollster warning that the party faces “electoral extinction” in the July 4 election.
The polls come in the middle of the election campaign, after a week in which both the Conservatives and Labor presented their official statements, and shortly before voters start receiving postal ballots.
Sunak surprised many in his party by announcing a snap election on May 22, contrary to widespread expectations that he would wait until later in the year to allow more time for living standards to recover after the highest inflation rate in 40 years.
Market research firm Savanta found 46% support for Keir Starmer's Labor Party, up 2 points on the previous poll five days earlier, while support for the Conservatives fell 4 points to 21%. The poll was conducted from June 12 to 14 for The Sunday Telegraph.
Labour's 25-point lead was the largest since the presidency of Sunak's predecessor, Liz Truss, whose tax-cut plans prompted investors to dump British government bonds, sending interest rates soaring and forcing the Bank of England to intervene.
Chris Hopkins, director of political research at Savanta, said: “Our research suggests this election may mark electoral extinction for the Conservative Party.”
A separate Survey conducted by Survation and published in the Sunday Times newspaper predicted that the Conservatives would end up with just 72 seats in the 650-member House of Commons – the lowest level in their history for nearly 200 years – while Labor would get 456 seats.
The survey was conducted from May 31 to June 13.
In percentage terms, the Survation poll showed Labor on 40% and the Conservatives on 24%, while the UK Reform Party led by Nigel Farage, a former Brexit campaigner – a right-wing rival to the Conservatives – on 12%.
A third poll, conducted by Opinium for the Sunday Observer newspaper and conducted from June 12 to 14, showed that Labor received 40%, the Conservatives 23%, and Reform 14%, with the two largest parties surrendering to smaller rivals.
