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Conservatives have crashed into fourth place in London for the European elections — trailing behind Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and the new Change UK Party.
A shock YouGov poll found Theresa May’s party limping on just 11 per cent in the capital — half of the 22 per cent share they enjoyed in 2014 when they came a respectable second.
Embarrassingly, they are six points behind Change UK, which is on 17 per cent despite only being launched as a party a few weeks ago. And Mr Farage’s newly formed anti-EU party is further ahead on 19.
A drubbing on that scale would increase the likelihood that Tories will try to oust Mrs May after the results of the election on May 23.
Moreover, her party is a mere one point ahead of the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, which means it is at risk of slipping into a humiliating fifth place in London if the campaign goes badly.
Anthony Wells of YouGov, which conducted the poll for campaign group Hope Not Hate, said the Conservatives were suffering because voters had no idea what they stood for on Europe.
“They are not the party of Brexit, nor the party of Remain — so there is not a clear reason to vote Conservative in this election,” he said.
Labour is in first place in London, but its 28 per cent share is drastically down from the 36.6 per cent they took in 2014.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt attempted to lead a Tory fightback this this morning, arguing that the “central argument” now facing MPs and the country was whether to agree a compromise deal which can get through Parliament or instead hand the decision back to the people in a fresh referendum.
Mr Hunt fired a warning shot against Mrs May doing a deal with Labour to agree a customs union, saying it could cost more votes in Parliament than it gained. “If we were proposing, which I very much hope we don’t, to sign up to the customs union, I think there is a risk that you would lose more Conservative MPs than you would gain Labour MPs,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme.
He added: “The central argument is do we resolve this issue by having a rerun, as some in the Labour Party would like, which I happen to think would be disastrous, or do we resolve this by delivering Brexit and then bringing the country together by showing the 48 per cent who voted Remain that this is not the Brexit of their worst nightmares.” Chancellor Philip Hammond argued last month that a second referendum was a “perfectly coherent proposition”.
Mr Hunt stressed both Labour and Tory voters, and those of other parties, were against “Brexit paralysis affecting their jobs and businesses”.
On a tour of Africa, including Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana, he stressed moves to build ties based on “enterprise and prosperity” rather than being so focused on aid. Many African governments were seeking funding through the City for projects, he added. He also stressed his trip was to encourage African leaders to adopt the democratic rather than “autocratic” path for their country, warning of the dangers of the latter as shown in Sudan and Algeria.
Meanwhile, Labour officials were shocked by the high polling for the Greens in London. The small Left-wing party is up a percentage point from 2014 despite having been squeezed by Labour since Mr Corbyn became leader.
A People’s Vote spokesman said the Green showing was down to its strong support for a Brexit referendum, and said: “The Labour leadership has spent so long chasing after a diminishing group of Leave voters, it has forgotten that the overwhelming majority of its supporters want to stay in the EU. Jeremy Corbyn cannot afford to take even Left-wing Remain voters for granted.”
Tory grassroots chiefs aim to force an emergency summit to press Mrs May to step down if they suffer a drubbing, it emerged. The meeting of 800 constituency chairs in June is set to be triggered by a petition under party rules and is planned to call a non-binding vote on the PM’s future.
