By: ReenaKumar
Britain’s ruling Conservative party holds a commanding 17 point lead over the opposition Labour party, a poll by Survation showed on Tuesday, with support for the anti-European UKIP plummeting.
Support for prime minister Theresa May’s Conservatives was at 47 per cent, while 30 per cent backed the opposition Labour party, the Survation poll for the “Good Morning Britain” TV show found.
The centrist Liberal Democrats were on 7 percent, while just 4 percent said they would vote for UKIP, down almost nine percentage points from its support in the 2015 election as the vote for Britain to leave the EU and May’s commitment to Brexit has cut the party’s appeal.
The poll, which comes after UKIP suffered heavy losses in last week’s council election, found that 54 percent of UKIP voters said they would now vote Conservative. Survation polled 1,005 people between May 5 and 6.
Meanwhile, Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would not quit as leader if he loses the national election next month.
Corbyn said he would carry on whatever the outcome of the June 8 poll despite surveys predicting Labour heading for its worst results in decades.
“I was elected leader of this party and I’ll stay leader of this party,” Corbyn said.
Corbyn, a socialist who has pledged higher taxes on the wealthy and a crackdown on powerful corporations, fought off a challenge to his leadership last September, only a year after he was first elected to the position with many of his own MPs doubting his appeal to the wider electorate.
“I’m serious about winning the election,” Corbyn said. “I know what I believe in, I know what I do. I never respond to personal abuse of me, because I’d rather get my policies across. By not responding it forces the other side to engage with the policy debate.”
At his campaign launch on Tuesday, Corbyn will say Labour can transform Britain from a country rigged in favour of the rich and powerful to a place where people can lead richer lives.
Having faced criticism for being unclear on Britain’s divorce from the European Union, he will also say the issue of Brexit has been settled.
“Labour wants a jobs-first Brexit, a Brexit that safeguards the future of Britain’s vital industries, a Brexit that paves the way to a genuinely fairer society and an upgraded economy,” he is set to say according to a statement released by his office.
