The Labour Party is now more popular than the Conservatives among readers of papers generally considered as sympathetic to the governing party.
A new poll conducted by Survation on behalf of the campaigning organisation Best for Britain showed that 37 per cent of voters who get receive their news mostly from Conservative-leaning outlets plan to vote Labour at the next election compared to 22 per cent who plan to vote for the Tories.
The poll of 15,029 adults found that readers of The Sun are most likely of these outlets to back Labour, with almost four in ten planning to cast their vote for Keir Starmer’s party at the next election.
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This compares to one in four Sun readers who plan to back the Conservatives.
For those who get their news from The Daily Telegraph, 31 per cent plan to vote Labour at the next election compared to 26 per cent who plan to vote Conservative.
The readership of the The Daily Express also continues to trend towards Labour — with 31 per cent backing Keir Starmer’s party compared to 25 per cent for the Conservatives.
The only one of the major Conservative-leaning papers recorded as bucking this trend was The Daily Mail, whose readers continue to lean Tory by 33 per cent to 26 per cent for Labour.
On top of this, when asked if they would consider voting tactically to secure a change of government, 32 per cent of Daily Mail readers, 39 per cent of Sun readers, 40 per cent of Express readers and 43 per cent of Telegraph readers said that they were willing to do so.
Conversely, just 17 per cent of Daily Mail readers, 15 per cent of Sun readers, 24 per cent of Express readers and 18 per cent of Telegraph readers said that they would consider voting tactically to save Rishi Sunak‘s beleaguered administration.
The research from Best for Britain and Survation follows a similar poll conducted of current and recent viewers of GB News, the right-leaning broadcaster that boasts a number of high-profile Conservative presenters.
Polling by JL Partners found that across both groups Labour holds an 11 point cushion over the Conservatives, leading by 39 per cent to 28 per cent when “don’t knows” are excluded.
Reform UK, the right-wing party led by Richard Tice who is also a presenter on the channel, comes in third with 20 per cent of the viewership.
When a difference is drawn out between current and recent viewers of the channel, however, the picture is rosier for the Conservative Party. Amongst GB News’ existing audience, Rishi Sunak’s party only trails Labour by two points, registering 30 per cent support.
Reform also performed more strongly when recent viewers were excluded, being backed by 28 per cent of current viewers.
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