Almost half say Starmer looks more like a Prime Minister in this campaign than Sunak

Labour has maintained a double-digit lead over the Conservatives – sitting at 18 points ahead – following the second full week of campaigning, Opinium’s latest poll reveals.

Labour now takes 42% of the vote (-3), while the Conservatives have dropped to 24% (-1).

The Liberal Democrats have 8% (-2), SNP are on 3% (+1), the Green Party has 6% (-1) and Reform has 12% (+1).

Two in five voters (46%) think Keir Starmer looks most like a prime minister in this campaign, compared to 20% for Rishi Sunak.

Looking at how they have fared this week, half (51%) think Sunak specifically has had a bad week – with most of the polling conducted before the news regarding Sunak leaving D-Day events early broke. Just 21% said Sunak had had a good week. By contrast, 40% said Keir Starmer had had a good week vs. 29% who said he’d had a bad week.

In addition, Sunak’s leadership is the top reason not to vote for the Conservatives according to non-Conservative voters (44%).

Following the news that Nigel Farage has become the leader of Reform, the party has started to make more of an impact, with Farage’s leadership and a milkshake being thrown at him making two of the top news stories this week – even more so than the first TV leadership debate.

Just over a third of voters (37%) think Farage has come back for the wrong reasons, whilst a quarter (26%) say this is for the right reasons.

James Crouch, head of public affairs and policy at Opinium said: “Despite a punchy performance by the Prime Minister in the ITV Leaders debate, it’s been another terrible week for the Tory campaign in the eyes of most voters, with the ongoing D-Day row only making things worse.

“To add insult to injury, Nigel Farage’s explosive return to frontline politics keeps Reform’s numbers buoyant. This prevents the right-of-centre vote from unifying, leaving the Conservatives on only 24%.”