Labour has taken a four-point lead over the Conservatives as leader Jeremy Corbyn prepares to give his keynote speech at the party conference in Brighton.
The latest YouGov poll for The Times showed Labour on 43%, up one point on a fortnight ago, and showed the Tories down by two points, on 39%. Support for the Liberal Democrats remained unchanged at 7%.
It came ahead of Mr Corbyn's keynote speech at the Labour conference, calling the party a “government-in-waiting” and pledging a “new common sense” model for the UK’s public, designed to overturn the Liberal free market economics of the past three decades.
The Labour leader was expected to declare that Grenfell Tower stands as a symbol of a failed political system, and the devastating fire that caused the death of around 80 people was the product of a “brutal” system of disregard for rampant inequality, the hollowing out of public services, and “disdain for the powerless and the poor”.
Mr Corbyn said the snap election called by Prime Minister Theresa May that caused her to lose the Conservatives’ majority had “put the Tories on notice and Labour on the threshold of power”.
"We have become a government-in-waiting," he will say. "And our message to the country could not be clearer: Labour is ready.
"Ready to tackle inequality. Ready to rebuild our NHS. Ready to give opportunity to young people, dignity and security to older people. Ready to invest in our economy and meet the challenges of climate change and automation. Ready to put peace and justice at the heart of foreign policy. And ready to build a new and progressive relationship with Europe. We are ready for government."
The Grenfell fire was not just "the result of bad political decisions" but stood for "a failed and broken system, which Labour must and will replace", Mr Corbyn will say.
The Labour leader is expected to return to promises made in the party’s election manifesto to spend £2.5 billion a year to provide free further education college courses, and vocational and technical training, in addition to £1bn for new facilities.
He will reaffirm his commitment to a National Education Service to match the NHS, and stress the importance of lifelong education to allow people to retrain for redeployment into new jobs as technology develops.
Additional reporting by PA
