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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Sophie Huskisson

Bombshell poll predicts 314-seat Labour majority - and no Tories north of Lincolnshire

A bombshell poll has predicted a 314-seat majority for Labour - with the Tories losing every seat north of Lincolnshire.

Keir Starmer's party would win 482 seats if a general election was held tomorrow, the eyebrow-raising forecast says, more than double the 202 they hold now.

The Conservatives are predicted to win just 69 seats, which would mean a loss of 296 - by far the party's worst result in a century.

The predictions - which are a humiliating revelation for Rishi Sunak - come from an MRP Voting Intention poll by Savanta and Electoral Calculus which uses algorithms to map voting intentions on seats.

Previous election results have suggested that MRP is usually more accurate than other forms of modelling. However, polling is also highly uncertain two years before a likely election.

The Tories won a majority at the 2019 general election (left map), while polling this September showed a shift towards Labour taking seats (middle) which has continued to be seen in polling in December (right) (Savanta)

According to the modelling, zero Tories would hold a seat north of Lincolnshire, with the north’s red wall - as well as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Richmond constituency - all lost to Labour MPs.

The Tories would stand to lose all of their seats in London, including Uxbridge and South Ruislip - Boris Johnson ’s seat.

They would also stand to lose many seats in the South West to Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

The SNP would gain an extra seven seats according to the model, leaving them with all bar four of Scotland’s 59 Westminster constituencies.

Keir Starmer's party would win 482 seats if a general election was held tomorrow, the forecast says (PA)

The Lib Dems would increase their parliamentary representation to their highest level since 2010, including gaining deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab ’s Esher and Walton seat.

The poll is another kick in the teeth for Tory MPs, hundreds of whom already fear losing their jobs if Keir Starmer continues on track to a landslide victory at the next election.

Some Tories including ex-health secretary Matt Hanc ock have already announced they will stand down at the next election.

The poll spells grim news for Rishi Sunak (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The poll, Savanta’s first MRP since the Labour conference, comes as the Tories face mounting pressure over strikes, cost-of-living and the energy crisis.

A report by think tank the King’s Fund last night said a “decade of neglect” by Conservative governments has weakened the NHS.

The government-commissioned report pointed to ex-PM David Cameron ’s decision to reduce the NHS’s annual budget from Labour’s 3.6% to an average of just 1.5% as the key reason for the service’s decline, the Guardian reported.

Days ago the NHS backlog reached a new record high of 7.2million people.

Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta, said: “Last time we published an MRP model, I spoke of both the potential and precarious nature of the 56-seat majority and 12 point lead the poll gave the Labour Party during their conference.

“Even the most optimistic Labour supporter would not have foreseen what was to come, such was the subsequent Conservative collapse.

"And therefore this latest MRP model reflects the position now, of two parties experiencing widely differing electoral fortunes."

Martin Baxter, Founder and CEO of Electoral Calculus, said: "This is an interesting poll, because it is the first MRP we have done since the Conservatives slid so far behind Labour, and therefore we have very little to compare it with.

“MRP results are different to applying uniform national swing (UNS) to the 2019 General Election baseline. The UNS prediction would give the Conservatives about 24 more seats than this model.

"Previous elections suggest that MRP is usually more accurate than UNS predictions, but we are in uncharted electoral waters and uncertainty is higher than usual."

Labour MP Ed Balls has however warned Keir Starmer against “complacency” and falling into the same trap that led the party to lose the 1992 election.

The former Economic Secretary to the Treasury said Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were ‘never complacent’ in the lead up to the 1997 Labour victory, because “they never really believed Labour was going to win”.

Speaking about current times, he said: "This is now Labour's election to lose, rather than a real challenge for Labour to win. That changes the whole dynamic for Keir Starmer and for Rachel Reeves and the team.

“It goes to the point about complacency because if all you're focused on is winning the election, you say what you need to say to win the election.

“Everything you say now will be with you on election day. So the temptation to rush out and say, here's the plan, here's what we'll do - the danger is it happened to Labour in 1992, Neil Kinnock and John Smith had made big commitments on child benefits and pensions two years before, which was billions of pounds.

“By the time we got to the election when the economy was in real trouble and people worried about jobs, they had these massive commitments on things which didn't feel like the number one priority.”

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