Labour has surged into a 13-point lead over the Tories as the cost of living crisis bites, the Mirror can reveal.
An exclusive Deltapoll survey for this newspaper shows Keir Starmer ’s party has a double-digit advantage over Boris Johnson ’s Conservatives.
The gap comes as the lame-duck Prime Minister prepares to quit No10 and hand over to either Foreign Secretary Liz Truss or former Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Tuesday.
In the latest boost for Mr Starmer and his chances of entering Downing Street, the study put Labour on 44%, the Conservatives on 31% and the Lib Dems on 12%.
Other parties were on 13%.
Deltapoll director Joe Twyman said: “Deltapoll’s results demonstrate very clearly the enormity of the challenge that awaits the new Prime Minister.
“After a summer dominated by attempts to appeal to Conservative Party members, whoever ends up in Downing Street must look to effectively address voter’s concerns about the cost of living, and quickly, or the sizeable lead Labour currently enjoys will not be disappearing any time soon.”
A breakdown showed just 28% of women backed the Tories, compared with 34% of men.
Labour’s support was spread equally across men and women.
Mr Starmer’s party led the Conservatives among all age groups, except pensioners.
Some 47% of those aged 65 and over said they would back the Tories, against 30% who said they would vote Labour.
In the dog days of his premiership, just 31% of voters said Mr Johnson was doing well or very well, compared with 67% who thought he was performing badly or very badly.
Forty-per-cent said Mr Starmer was doing well or very well, with 48% saying he was doing badly or very badly.
Nearly half of voters - 48% - said a Labour Government led by Mr Starmer with Rachel Reeves as Chancellor would be “best for the British economy”.
A third - 34% - believed a Conservative Government with Mr Johnson remaining as PM and current Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi in the Treasury would be best.
The current overall voting intention is almost a total reversal of the 2019 general election, when the Tories netted 43.6% of ballots and Labour 32.2%.
Deltapoll interviewed 1,600 British adults online between August 26 and 30, with data weighted to represent the British adult population as a whole.
