The majority of the public already expect Labour to lose the next election, new polling shows.
The survey found 60% believe Sir Keir Starmer’s party will be ousted in 2029, while half think he will not still be Prime Minister then.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
Analysis by the More in Common think tank also found Labour could be defeated without losing a single vote if the Tories rally former voters who stayed at home and take half of those who switched to Reform.
Sir Keir’s party needs to increase its vote share from 33.7% at the 2024 election to at least 36% in 2029 to see off such a threat.
More in Common’s UK director Luke Tryl said: “It may seem extremely premature to be looking ahead to the next election just months after the last one, but with such a volatile electorate Labour needs to be thinking not just about how to hold on to its existing coalition, but how to grow that broad but shallow base of support if it is going to have any chance of holding onto power.
“Our analysis suggests a modest growth in their vote share to 36% is the magic number that would allow the party to see off a threat from a ‘united right’.
“Fail to do that and the party could find itself out of office, even without losing a single vote.
“Growing Labour’s base will require Keir Starmer to appeal to the left and right – winning over those moderate Conservatives who almost made the leap to Labour this time, while also winning back jaded progressive voters who don’t yet think Labour is being bold enough.”
If the Tories were able to mobilise ex-voters who did not turn out in July and half of those who backed Nigel Farage’s party they would win 293 seats to Labour’s 273.
But if Labour increased its vote share to 36% it would have a working majority of 50 even if the Conservatives pulled back former voters and Reform supporters.
More in Common polled 2,005 British adults between September 16 and 18.
SEE MORE :
Taxpayers fork out £68,000 for Angela Rayner’s ‘vanity photographer’ as pensioners freeze
As the Labour Party continues to shoulder criticism amid a sea of scandals including scrapping the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners and the PM himself having accepted numerous high value freebies – the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner hasn’t walked away unscathed after it emerged she had hired a taxpayer funded photographer to boost her image.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner has been awarded her own personal photographer (Image: Getty)
Photographers for the Prime Minister are hardly new, with Downing Street having employed numerous photographers over the years to document the PM’s activities on official engagements – however this is the first time that a Deputy PM has been awarded one of her own.
Simon Walker has been given the title of Chief Photographer to the Deputy PM and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and is now set to earn a salary of £68,000 a year to snap Ms.Rayner as she goes about her duties.
Yesterday Ms.Rayner yesterday acknowledged that voters were “angry” about the number of senior political figures including Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves that had benefitted from freebies worth “thousands of pounds” such as clothes, holidays and tickets, from wealthy donors.
However, she defended accepting them and argued that donations have been a “feature of our politics for a very long time” while also insisting that she didn’t believe she had broken any rules.
Earning £68k a year, Ms Rayner’s photographer will earn the equivalent of 226.6 winter fuel payments (Image: Getty)
Despite her insistence however, the Conservative Party were not convinced andlast night urged the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to investigate whether Ms Rayner breached Commons rules, after she failed to declare that former Labour MP Sam Tarry had joined her on a trip to New York, when she stayed in a Manhattan apartment owned by millionaire donor Lord Alli.
A Tory source told the The Daily Mail. : “Are there any greater vanity projects than the Deputy Prime Minister with her thousands of pounds of free clothes, her luxury free holiday, and now her publicly paid photographer?”
Ms Rayner’s decision to hire a personal photographer amid the ongoing controversy is just one of several actions in her attempt to promote what she describes privately as “Brand Angela” amid speculation she is being “marginalised” in government.
A spokesman for Ms Rayner’s Housing, Communities and Local Government department said: “Many government departments employ official photographers to share the work of the department and ministers with the public.
“This is a civil service role and will be part of the department’s communications team.”
The controversy is the latest in a long list of scandals to hit Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party (Image: Gett
Since assuming office earlier this Summer, plans for a huge ‘office of the Deputy Prime Minister’ have been scrapped, with several hefty chunks of her brief hived off to other ministers, such as Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds who will be taking the lead on employment rights.
She also narrowly missed out on a grace-and-favour residence tucked away in Buckinghamshire, after Downing Street decided to award the 21 bedroomed sprawling Dorneywood mansion to Chancellor Rachel Reeves instead of the Deputy PM.
However, despite the optics, Ms.Rayner insisted she wasn’t being sidelined as she told the BBC: “I’m not being pushed out.”
