Poll blow piles pressure on beleaguered prime minister

Tory meltdown after mini-Budget gifts Starmer 33-point lead

- ANDREW WOODCOCK, ADAM FORREST, JON STONE

Liz Truss’s hopes of long-term survival as prime minister have been dealt a massive blow by a bombshell series of polls, giving Labour leads of up to 33 points and showing support for the Tories melting away after her “kamikaze” mini-Budget of tax giveaways for the rich.

The prime minister emerged from five days of silence yesterday to deliver a defiant defence of the £45bn package, which she insisted was “the right plan” even while admitting it handed “disproportionate” cash gains to the wealthiest in society.

But independent experts described the package unveiled by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng last Friday as the biggest “unforced error” of modern economic history, warning it will usher in a new age of austerity, with the government needing to find almost £50bn a year in cuts to public spending to meet its own targets.

The new YouGov poll, conducted on Wednesday and yesterday after the Budget came under fire from the IMF and the Bank of England was forced to intervene to shore up pension funds, put Keir Starmer’s Labour up nine points since the weekend on 54 per cent and Tories down seven on 21 per cent.

A separate Survation survey had Starmer’s party 21 points clear on 49 per cent to the Tories’ 28. Deltapoll recorded a 19-point margin, with Labour on 48 per cent to the Tories’ 29. And Redfield and Wilton had a 17-point gap between Labour on 46 and Conservatives 29 per cent.

Any would deliver a landslide victory for Labour, potentially outstripping Tony Blair’s historic triumph in 1997. The findings set a torrid backdrop for the opening of the Tory annual conference in Birmingham on Sunday, at which the PM and chancellor were already expected to face calls for their removal.