Tories take narrow poll lead over Labour in Badenoch’s first week as leader

The Conservatives have taken a two-point poll lead over Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in Kemi Badenoch’s first week as leader.

The new Tory leader has taken the party to 29 per cent of the vote, according to pollsters More in Common, with Labour behind on just 27 per cent. It is the highest rating for the Conservatives since February.

It marks a remarkable fall from grace for Labour, which in July was elected to power in a landslide victory over Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.

Then, Labour won a 174-seat majority on 34 per cent of the vote, while the Tories suffered their worst election defeat in history.

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But, as the fallout from Rachel Reeves’s historic £40bn tax grab grows, Labour’s poll rating has continued to fall.

And, just days after succeeding Mr Sunak as Tory leader, Ms Badenoch is enjoying a bounce, though More in Common director Luke Tryl cautioned that “at this stage people are not that familiar” with her.

“As that familiarity figure grows, the early first impressions she makes as leader of the opposition will be key to setting the course of her leadership,” he added.

Her net approval rating sits at minus 3, compared with Sir Keir on minus 25 points. However, just one in three people say they are familiar with Ms Badenoch, More in Common found.

It is just the latest poll to show a boost for Ms Badenoch and her party since she beat Robert Jenrick in the contest to replace Mr Sunak.

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The Independent’s weekly tracker poll by Techne UK on Friday revealed that in the week after she took over from the former PM, Ms Badenoch cut two points from the Labour lead in the polls.

It comes as Sir Keir’s government faces a mounting backlash over the Budget’s inheritance tax raid on farmers and the increase in employer national insurance contributions.

Thousands of farmers are set to descend on London later this month in protest against the government’s extension of inheritance tax, which they say will threaten the UK’s food security and lead to the closure of family farms.

The Labour Party has been accused of “traumatising” farmers with the tax grab, which will mean they have to pay 20 per cent tax on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m from April 2026.

Meanwhile, Britain’s biggest business organisations have accused the government of “betrayal” over Budget plans to hike employer national insurance contributions from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent despite a manifesto pledge not to increase taxes for working people.

The majority of the increase will be passed on to workers through lower wages.

Elsewhere in the poll, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK continued to gain support, with 19 per cent of the vote, up from 18 per cent at the beginning of November.

The Liberal Democrats lost ground, falling from 14 per cent of the vote to 11 per cent, while the Green Party remained flat on 8 per cent.

Mr Tryl said the distribution of support made the UK look “more like a continental” country with a voting system based on proportional representation.