Labour is ahead of the Conservatives in UK opinion polling for the first time since January.
The YouGov survey put Keir Starmer’s party on 35 per cent compared to just 33 per cent for Boris Johnson’s, once “don’t knows” were excluded.
It is the lowest poling figure for the Tories since Johnson’s 2019 election landslide.
The poll was carried out on Wednesday and Thursday just hours after the Tory Prime Minister announced his plans to hit low earners with a National Insurance hike to pay for social care in England.
But the poll is the first time Labour has been ahead after 149 consecutive Tory leads as Boris Johnson feels the strain from a series of controversial decisions and the bungled handling of the Afghan withdrawal.
As well as the manifesto-busting £12 billion-a-year rise would fix the crisis in social care the Tories broke another election pledge on Thursday, scrapping the pensions triple lock for one year to avoid a Covid statistical anomaly which would have triggered an eight per cent rise.
However, polling in Scotland this week saw Labour support slip three points to 17 per cent in Westminster elections with the SNP on 51 per cent, up four points.
Anthony Wells, political research director at YouGov, said: “We should be cautious of leaping to too many conclusions from a single poll.”
But he added: “It looks as if the government may have sacrificed their reputation for low taxes amongst Tory voters without actually getting much credit for helping the NHS.”
Starmer, meanwhile, is under pressure from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and the Labour left to spell out a more concrete plan for fixing social care.
Burnham, touted for a future leadership bid, wrote in the London Evening Standard: “My advice to my party would be not to leave it too long before presenting one. Criticism of the Tory plan alone won’t cut through unless we say what we would do.”
He restated his calls for a ten per cent tax on inheritance, dubbed a ‘death tax” by Tories when it was last suggested.
Starmer has suggested he could impose a wealth tax to fix the NHS and social care crisis.
He said: “Those that earn their income from things other than work, should pay their fair share.”
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