Labour on course for landslide election win despite voters thinking party lacks clear plan on economy

Labour remains on course for victory at the next election despite voters believing the party lacks a clear plan on the key issues such as the economy, immigration and Brexit, a new poll suggests.

Athough Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has faced criticism for rowing back on promises and lacking a clear policy or vision, on many issues, voters believe Labour’s plans are at least as clear as the Conservatives’.

Indeed, Labour are seen as having a clearer plan on social care (11 point lead), housing (10 points), healthcare (9 points), welfare (8 points) and unemployment (8 points).

However, voters believed Sir Keir’s party were less clear than Rishi Sunak’s Tories on key areas such as the economy (2 point Conservative lead), the EU and Brexit (3 points) and immigration (5 points).

In most areas for both parties though, more voters say their positions are unclear rather than clear.

Many voters relied on traditional notions of what Labour and the Tories stand for in assessing their policy positions, with higher clarity scores for Sir Keir’s on the NHS and the Prime Minister’s on security and defence.

This does not appear to be harming Labour’s chances of election victory, with the party on 44 per cent (no change) compared with the Tories’ 29 per cent (up two points), a 15-point lead.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats slid back to 10 per cent, down from 14 per cent last month.

BMG said this would give Labour a landslide majority of 1997 proportions, with the party on close to 400 seats and the Tories on less than 200.

Robert Struthers, head of polling BMG, said: “Yes, Keir Starmer has been criticised recently for rowing back on promises and not setting out a vision, but our polling suggests this is less of an issue than some might suggest, at least electorally.

“Indeed, many voters say Labour’s plans in several areas are clearer than the Conservatives, even if they don’t think the plans of either party are all that clear overall. Starmer probably doesn’t feel he has to give much more policy detail until closer to the election and there is certainly no evidence that a lack of policy detail and a sweeping vision is hurting him electorally, at least for now.”