More than three times as many UK voters wanted Joe Biden to win the US election than favoured Donald Trump, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
About 57% of British people chose Biden against just 16% who backed Trump in the presidential election. Even Conservative voters preferred Biden to Trump, with 40% wanting Biden against 28% who favoured the outgoing president.
A clear majority of UK voters – 62% – said they believed the US election was generally conducted fairly and properly, with 67% saying that Trump’s claims about electoral fraud were not true.
A majority (58%) also said they believed Biden would be positive both for the United States and the world.
Meanwhile at home, in the week that a second national lockdown began in England as the government tried to control Covid-19, Labour has opened a four-point lead over the Tories. Labour is up two points, on 42%, compared with a fortnight ago, while the Conservatives are unchanged on 38%. The Liberal Democrats are up one point on 7%.
It is the biggest lead for Labour since Keir Starmer became leader in April and represents a remarkable change in the standing of the two main parties. Early on in the pandemic in March, Boris Johnson and the Tories led Labour by 26 points in an Opinium poll, before the lead was gradually eroded as the government struggled to bring the virus under control.
Two-thirds (64%) of people in England say they support the latest four-week lockdown, while only 20% oppose it. However, three in five (62%) think it was implemented too late. While there is broad support for most of the lockdown, some 37% said more sport should be allowed outdoors.
