A new voting intention poll features the Conservative Party in fourth place behind the Liberal Democrats, with Reform UK still in front with a clear lead.
According to the YouGov poll for Sky News/The Times, Nigel Farage‘s Reform are up to 29 per cent, with Labour trailing on 22 per cent after dropping a point.
The Lib Dems are third on 17 per cent, with the Conservatives down to 16 per cent after slumping another two points.
The survey looks set to increase pressure on Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, after her party’s historically poor performance at the local elections.
However, shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel has said the new poll is not “surprising” as rebuilding a political party “doesn’t happen overnight”.
Asked about the survey on Times Radio, Patel said: “I don’t think that’s at all surprising, because we did lose the general election last year. Rebuilding a political party doesn’t happen overnight…
“I recall this in 1997, it took us a while to come back. With that, rebuilding the party isn’t just in Westminster, it’s at the grassroots and in the country, and that’s what we’re focused on doing.”
🚨Tory-Lib Dem crossover poll:➡️ Reform UK – 29%(+1)🔴 Labour – 22%(-1)🟠 Lib Dem – 17%(+1),🔵 Tory – 16%(-2)🟢 Green – 10%(+1)18/19 May via YouGov / Sky News / Times
***Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.***
At the local elections, the Conservatives lost overall control of all 18 councils they were defending, with 23 councils in the race in total.
Badenoch said her party would “learn lessons” after it lost a total of 674 council seats.
The Reform and Liberal Democrat parties both made significant gains at the Conservative Party’s expense, winning another 677 and 163 seats respectively since elections were held in 2021.
The elections saw the Lib Dems take control of Shropshire from the Conservatives and take overall control of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire, while it became the largest party in Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Devon.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives finished a distant third in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election with 2,341 votes, or 7 per cent. Reform won the seat by a margin of six votes, besting Labour by the finest by-election margin since World War Two.
Speaking after the local elections, Ed Davey declared the Liberal Democrats as “the new party of Middle England”.
The Lib Dem leader said: “We have overtaken the Conservatives at these local elections, putting us on track to overtake them at the next general election too.
“From Wiltshire to Oxfordshire, from Shropshire to Devon, the Liberal Democrats have replaced the Conservatives as the party of middle England.”
The Lib Dem leader credited his party’s success to former Tory voters “appalled by the Conservatives lurching to the extremes and cosying up to Nigel Farage”.
He added: “Today voters across the country have chosen our community politics over the Conservative Party’s neglect and disdain.”
The YouGov poll comes after a ConservativeHome survey of the Tory grassroots found Badenoch’s popularity had plummeted again since last month. The Conservative leader now records a new satisfaction rating of 0 points, down from +9 last month and taking her to 14th place.
Overall, the average satisfaction rating for shadow cabinet members dropped from +12.62 last month to just +4 this month, something ConservativeHome, the Tory grassroots site, says “speaks to a general dissatisfaction with Kemi Badenoch’s top team.”
Asked this morning if the Conservative Party can come back from this latest nadir, Priti Patel told Times Radio: “Well of course we can. We’ve absolutely done it before. We’re working, I can tell you now, flat out to ensure that we can absolutely do that, but it takes time.
“Winning back the trust and confidence of the British people takes time.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
