- The Conservatives hit historic lows in opinion polls published on Friday.
- Theresa May’s party has dropped to its lowest poll rating in over 20 years.
- The Tories are hemorrhaging support as the prime minister struggles to deliver Brexit.
- Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is hovering up Tory support amid growing anger with the government’s failure to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.
- Farage’s party is on course to win the European Parliament elections this month.
- May is under pressure to quit in the next few weeks.
LONDON — The Conservatives have slumped to their lowest poll rating in nearly 25 years as Theresa May’s handling of Brexit and the rise of Nigel Farage’s new party continue to cost the Tories swathes of support.
A ComRes poll published on Friday evening put the Conservatives on 19%. It was their lowest share of general election voting intention since 1995, prior to the party’s landslide defeat in the 1997 general election.
The poll had the Tories eight percentage points behind Labour — putting Jeremy Corbyn’s party on course to form the next government — and stunningly, one percentage point behind Farage’s Brexit Party, which is only a few weeks old.
May’s party is hemorrhaging votes as the prime minister struggles to deliver Brexit.
It lost over 1,300 seats in this month’s local elections in England and Northern Ireland, and is set to suffer even worse results when Brits vote in the European Parliament elections later in two weeks time.
ComRes found that just 11% of people intended to vote for the Conservatives in the European elections, a result which would likely cost the party swathes of European Parliament seats across the country.
Farage’s Brexit Party is the main beneficiary of the Tories’ collapse. Despite being just weeks old and having no manifesto, the vehement pro-Leave party topped the European elections poll with 34% of the intended vote share.
Another opinion poll published on Friday didn’t make much better reading for the embattled prime minister.
An Opinium poll put the Conservatives on 22%, just one percentage point ahead of the Brexit Party and six behind Corbyn’s Labour, which despite also losing votes is in poll position to win the next general election.
The Conservatives’ collapse in the polls comes amid growing opposition to May’s leadership.
Senior members of May’s Cabinet reportedly believe that she must resign as prime minister in the next few weeks amid fury among Conservative MPs with her pursuit of a compromise Brexit deal with the Labour Party.
The prime minister could spell out a specific date for her departure when she meets with the Conservative party’s 1922 committee of backbench Members of Parliament this week.
May has already promised to stand down once Parliament passes a Brexit withdrawal deal.
However, with no House of Commons majority for a deal in sight, restless Conservative MPs want May to quit in the next few weeks, paving the way for a leadership contest to replace her to take place in the summer.
See Also:
- Running down the clock: How British politics fell into a Brexit coma
- Theresa May told by Conservative MPs to set out her resignation plans by the end of today
- Theresa May to offer Brexit deal to Corbyn as furious Conservatives call for her to quit
SEE ALSO: Running down the clock: How British politics fell into a Brexit coma
Source: Business Insider – apayne@businessinsider.com (Adam Payne)