Rishi Sunak has been handed a fresh blow as a new opinion poll shows the Prime Minister leading Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in just four seats.
The opinion poll, conducted by Focaldata for Best for Britain, asked voters whether they would rather Sunak or Starmer lead the country.
Starmer came out on top nationally on 32 per cent, with just 22 per cent siding with Sunak.
However, a staggering 29 per cent of voters remain undecided or do not know.
Sir Keir Starmer (left) and Rishi Sunak (right)
GETTY
The Leader of the Opposition was the most popular choice in 390 seats, well above the 326 needed to win the general election with an outright majority.
A number of notable Tory seats showed Starmer as the top choice, including in the Chief Secretary of the Treasury Laura Trott’s own patch of Sevenoaks.
The number of seats where “don’t know” was the top response stood at 238 and many Conservative constituencies showed Starmer edged out Sunak.
Sunak trails Starmer in his own seat of Richmond & Northallerton, with the Labour leader registering a narrow three point advantage.
The Prime Minister, who succeeded former Foreign Secretary Lord William Hague as the local MP in 2015, won the seat with a majority of 27,210 in the last time election.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Sir Keir Starmer
PA
Sunak is the preferred choice over Starmer and “don’t know” in just four constituencies.
Voters in Braintree, Castle Point, Clacton and North Bedfordshire sided with the Prime Minister.
A further 29 constituencies in England, Wales and Scotland put Sunak ahead of Starmer but behind “don’t know”.
The opinion poll of 10,006 voters comes as a massive blow to Sunak and the Tory Party as MPs begin to worry about Labour’s seemingly unassailable lead.
Sunak, who replaced Liz Truss in Downing Street in October 2022, reportedly hoped to use his personal appeal to win over voters rather than rely on flailing support for the Tory Party.
However, the Prime Minister’s personal approval has plummeted in the last twelve months.
Labour is around 20 per cent of the Tory Party going into 2024, down from just over 30 per cent when Sunak entered Number 10.
Despite being embroiled in the partygate scandal, the Tories trailed by the low-teens or single-digits in the dying days of Boris Johnson’s premiership.
Sunak appeared to consider turning to a familiar face to revive Conservative fortunes after replacing Truss last autumn.
The Prime Minister reportedly met with former Number 10 aide Dominic Cummings twice.
A Number 10 source said: “It was a broad discussion about politics and campaigning, no job was offered.”
However, Cummings said: “He wanted a secret deal in which I delivered the election and he promised to take government seriously after the election.
“But I’d rather the Tories lose than continue in office without prioritising what’s important and the voters.
“The post-2016 Tories are summed up by the fact that Sunak, like Johnson, would rather lose than take government seriously.
“Both thought their MPs agreed with them, and both were right.”
