In the week of this year’s Labour party conference, Opinium’s latest poll reveals that Labour’s lead is up to 16 points from 14 last week. Labour’s vote share increased by 2 points, taking them to 44%, while the Conservatives remain on 28%.
The Liberal Democrats went down to 10% (-1), the Green party and Reform UK both remained on 6% and the SNP remain on 3%.
Keir Starmer has also seen a 9-point increase in his net approval rating in the last week and is now on 1% (35% approve, 34% disapprove). Among 2019 Conservative voters, he has increased from -42% last week to -26% this week and has seen a smaller increase among current Labour voters from 48% last week to 55% this week. Although Starmer’s boost cannot be solely attributed to being attacked by a glittery protester, 62% said they had heard about this event while just 49% who had heard about Starmer’s speech.
Starmer receives boost in public trust on competency and preparedness
Following this week’s conference, Keir Starmer takes the lead when UK voters consider who would make the best prime minister, with a 9-point boost from last week – 32% (+4) to 23% (-2). In addition, more voters also believe he looks like a prime minister in waiting (38% to 35%) when compared to last week (30% to 39%).
Half of UK voters (50%) think Labour are prepared to govern if they win the next election, in comparison to 39% who think the Conservatives are prepared to govern. Starmer has also seen a boost in how the public perceive his leadership attributes, with 37% (+7) agreeing he is competent and can be trusted to make big decisions.
More voters consider the Labour Party to be more united in comparison to the Conservative Party. Over half (55%) of voters say Labour under Starmer is united, while 31% say Conservatives under Rishi Sunak are united.
Messaging on housebuilding cuts through
The Labour Party’s message on plans to increase housebuilding to tackle rising house prices and provide more homes also appears to have cut through to the UK public following this week’s conference. The proportion of voters thinking Labour supported this initiative jumped by 14 points from last week (58% vs. 44%).
James Crouch, head of policy and public affairs at Opinium said: “Conference season has ended with a return to solid double-digit leads for Labour. But it has been an especially good week for the Labour leader himself.
“It appears the ‘glitter bomb’ protest and his reaction to it has helped to boost his own ratings and enable his speech to cut through when the news focus has shifted to the Middle East.”
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