Keir Starmer vs Liz Truss: latest YouGov opinion poll shows Labour with biggest lead since 2001

Labour is currently ahead in the polls by a higher margin than has ever been recorded by YouGov, which started polling in 2001.

The Conservatives have polled poorly in recent months and their ratings have declined since Liz Truss took over as prime minister, despite large scale interventions aimed at tackling the energy crisis and a number of tax cuts.

Polling carried out after Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget on Friday (23 September) suggests that the announced measures have been poorly received by the public, as well as by financial markets.

Keir Starmer is set to make his keynote speech at the Labour conference today, where he is expected to further lay out Labour’s vision, after the party unveiled its growth plans and its pledge to make the UK fossil-fuel free by 2030.

Labour take commanding poll lead

Starmer’s Labour has surged to a 17-point lead over the Conservatives. If the results were replicated in a general election they would translate to a majority of more than 100 seats for Labour, which would be one of the largest swings in modern political history.

The poll comes less than a month into Truss’ leadership of the Conservatives, and after the new prime minister committed to a huge package of spending to limit the impact of energy price rises for households.

Although the government’s energy support package was broadly popular, a number of policies announced since then have resulted in the Conservatives dropping to their lowest point in the polls in recent memory.

The mini-budget delivered by the chancellor has so far proven to be extremely unpopular, as the public has largely considered measures supposedly aimed at stimulating growth to be unfair, unaffordable and unlikely to be effective.

Two policies in particular, lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses and abolishing the top rate of income tax, are particularly unpopular.

Voters may also be responding to signals from the market in response to the mini-budget, which has seen the value of the pound plummet in recent days.

Additional policies like the pledge to reverse the ban on fracking have likely also been a factor in the Conservative’s growing unpopularity.

What does the latest YouGov poll say about voting intention?

• Labour - 45%
• Conservative - 28%
• Liberal Democrat - 9%
• Green - 7%
• SNP - 4%
• Reform UK - 3%
• Other - 2%
• Plaid Cymru - 1%

What did voters think of the mini-budget?

Fairness:

• Fair - 19%
• Not fair - 57%
• Don’t know - 24%

Affordability:

• Affordable - 12%
• Not affordable - 60%
• Don’t know - 28%

Will it drive growth?

• Will improve economic growth - 15%
• Will not improve economic growth - 53%
• Don’t know - 32%

All polling based on a YouGov survey of 1,730 British adults conducted between September 23 and 25

What policies have Labour announced party conference?

The Labour Party has announced a number of key policies so far during its annual conference in Liverpool.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Sunday (25 September) that Labour would hire an additional 13,000 police officers in a bid to cut crime and restore confidence in policing.

Starmer has promised to reverse the tax cut announced by Kwarteng just a few days earlier, which would have scrapped the 45p additional rate for people earning over £150,000 - this would have come into effect from April next year.

The party has also announced its intention to make the UK the first country in the world to achieve zero carbon power by 2030, by massively expanding the use of onshore wind, solar power, offshore wind, tidal, nuclear and hydrogen power.

Speaking today (27 September) Starmer announced that if elected Labour would set up a publicly owned energy company,