POLL: The Labour Party is flirting with an electoral disaster
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- YouGov online poll: Conservatives 42% / Labour 28%
- The Tories' lead is over Labour is huge and continues to grow
- Corbyn denies he is leading Labour to electoral oblivion
YouGov's latest voting intention poll is an absolute disaster for the Labour Party. It indicated a stunning 14-point lead for the Conservatives (42 % > 28%) - a 2% increase for the Tories since YouGov's last survey.
As Business Insider's polling tracker below illustrates, the latest poll makes the gulf between the Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour even wider as the latter continues to suffer from an internal war.
At the launch of his 10 policy pledges in east London on Thursday, Corbyn denied that he was leading the party to "oblivion" at the next general election in 2020. As things stand, a comfortable majority victory for the Conservatives looks like the most likely scenario - although obviously much can change in four years.
As Business Insider has noted in the past, Labour's current polling figures are unheard of. The opposition parties almost always lead the government in polls conducted at this stage in the electoral cycle. On average, governments have plummeted to net ratings of -8% at this point (1975-2010) - you can read more about this here.
This YouGov poll shows what a massive challenge Labour faces in becoming a more viable government-in-waiting ahead of 2020, no matter who wins the upcoming leadership contest. Corbyn is currently the favourite to regain his leadership due to high levels of support among the party membership. His challenger Owen Smith is the preferred candidate among Labour MPs.
The result of the Labour leadership contest will be announced on September 24.
University of Bath politics lecturer David Moon said that Labour under Corbyn will record one of the "worst general election performances in the party's history" in an interview with Business Insider. You can read this interview tomorrow at Business Insider UK.