UK General Election 2024: Conservative support lowest in 46 years, new poll shows

UK General Election 2024: Prime Minister Sunak has said he expects to call a general election in the second half of the year.

London: Support for the ruling Conservative Party has fallen to its lowest level in more than four decades as the general election approaches, according to a poll released on Monday, as another former minister announced he would quit parliament.

An Ipsos poll showed support for the Conservatives, in power for 14 years, at 20% at the end of February, a drop of seven percentage points in a month, while the opposition Labor party was at 47%. It was the lowest support Ipsos had recorded for the Conservatives since at least 1978, when it began regularly tracking support for the main parties.

The previous low was 22% in 1994, when John Major was Conservative prime minister, three years before the party suffered its worst electoral defeat in almost a century.

“The historical comparisons continue to look ominous for Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives,” said Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos.

Prime Minister Sunak has said he expects to call a general election in the second half of this year, but has not yet given a date. For the poll, Ipsos interviewed 1,004 adults in Britain by telephone between February 21 and 28.

The fall in support for the Conservatives follows a difficult start to the year for Sunak, with news that Britain entered a recession late last year. Paul Scully, a former technology minister, was the latest Conservative to announce he would leave parliament at the election.

“Farmed by divisions, the party has lost its way,” he said. “A vision is needed that goes beyond crisis management and can appeal to a broader part of the electorate.”