Labour opens up five-point gap over Reform UK to take highest poll lead since start of 2025.TA
The Labour Party has gained a five point lead over Reform UK
Labour’s popularity in the polls has soared to its highest level since the start of 2025 in the wake of Andy Burnham’s first party conference speech as prime minister.
The Labour Party has taken a five-point lead in YouGov’s latest polling for Sky News and the Times, the highest level of popularity the party has seen in almost two years.
The three-point boost in its ratings has come in the days after Mr Burnham’s well-received party conference speech, in which he pledged to create a national care service in an emotional address.
Meanwhile, Reform UK has faced another polling blow as it trails five points behind Mr Burnham’s party at 22 per cent, as Nigel Farage’s party remains bogged down in controversies over its financial affairs.
The Conservatives gained one point as the party gathers in Birmingham for its annual conference, ahead of Kemi Badenoch’s keynote speech on Wednesday.
The prime minister appears to have won back voters on the left during his first weeks as prime minister, with Liberal Democrats and the Green Party both polling at just 11 per cent.
The poll also found an increase in the number of Labour’s 2024 voters who would back the party again if an election were held tomorrow, up from 42 per cent in May to 61 per cent.
The prime minister’s latest popularity boost comes after he used his Labour Party conference speech to pledge to boost collaboration with European partners and lament the British industries “harmed by Brexit”.
Labour’s rise in popularity under Mr Burnham has prompted calls for an early election which, if he won, would secure him a mandate for at least five years to deliver the bold changes he has pledged as prime minister.
The prime minister has said he wants to “knock dead” the ideas, although Mrs Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey have both indicated they are making preparations for the possibility.
In his first Labour Party conference speech as leader, the prime minister said Britain’s decision to leave the EU had done “more harm than good” and he promised to set out the options to the country around the time of a UK-EU summit later this year.
Labour’s election manifesto in 2024 ruled out joining a customs union, going back into the single market or allowing the return of freedom of movement with the EU.
Mr Burnham previously said he would stick to Labour’s so-called Brexit “red lines” but has since indicated he is prepared to recommend going beyond them in future.
Mr Burnham’s comments follow a series of opinion polls on the issue in the past 12 months, which suggest voters believe Brexit has not worked and that a second referendum could result in a vote to rejoin.
He also vowed to bring water, housing and energy into public ownership and confirmed his plans for a free national social care service on a par with the NHS, to be funded with changes to the triple lock guarantee on pensions – a policy likely to divide voters.
And he also signalled a plan for councils to force landlords and the owners of empty homes to sell their properties in a socialist policy, which even Labour governments of the past would not consider.
Migrant dinghy found within 2 miles off Dover in fresh Channel security scare
EXCLUSIVE: Boat somehow reached British waters unescorted and continued towards the Kent coast before finally being intercepted
32 migrants were found off the coast of DOver (Image: Getty)
More than 30 migrants made it to within two miles of Dover in a fresh security scare for immigration chiefs. Two Border Security Command vessels and an RNLI lifeboat scrambled to a dinghy just two miles off the coast of Dover.
It somehow reached British waters unescorted and continued towards the Kent coast before finally being intercepted. Some 32 migrants were found on board after crossing through fog. The revelations emerged as Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp declared that deporting illegal migrants immediately is the “only way” to protect communities like Piddington from the asylum crisis.
The senior Tory insisted small boat arrivals must be booted out “within a week of arrival”. And he vowed to dismantle the legal architecture used by failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and visa overstayers to repeatedly fight attempts to remove them.
Mr Philp told Tory members: “The consequence of illegal entry will be immediate removal. Because if illegal immigrants know they will quickly be deported they won’t come in the first place.”
The Tory borders chief pointed to Home Office plans to dump 1,256 asylum seekers next to the picturesque Oxfordshire village of Piddington, which is home to around 350 people.
And he said the horrific murder of Rhiannon Whyte illustrates why ministers must end the small boats crisis.
Sudanese asylum seeker Deng Majek stabbed mother-of-one Rhiannon 23 times in a frenzied 90-second attack after following the 27-year-old from his asylum hotel to Bescot Road railway station in Walsall in 2024.
Majek was later seen dancing and joking in the hotel car park. The Sudanese monster had arrived on a small boat about three months before the attack.
And Mr Philp said: “The truth is we cannot have strong borders while in the ECHR. Successive governments have tried, and it hasn’t worked.
“So, the next Conservative government will leave the ECHR.
“That way we can deport illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. No asylum claims. No human rights claims. Just detention followed by rapid deportation back to the county of origin or to a safe third country.
“It worked in Australia 13 years ago and it will work here today.
“Tough? Yes. But here’s the truth: it’s the only thing that will work to protect places like Piddington, to protect young women like Rhiannon and to protect our borders. And we will do it.”
Mr Philp vowed on Wednesday to “immediately” close Labour’s new safe and legal routes while “illegal migration is rife”.
The Shadow Home Secretary accused Shabana Mahmood of “opening our borders even more” by re-establishing the UK Resettlement Scheme and creating three new community sponsorship routes.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp addresses Tory members (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster / Daily Express)
Under a Conservative government, illegal migration will have to fall to nearly zero before similar schemes are considered.
Thousands of migrants are expected to arrive under Labour’s new schemes every year once they are fully up and running.
Charities, faith groups and businesses will be able to apply to host people from next year. And Mr Philp warned “those coming will have the right to bring in their whole extended families too”.
He said: “Labour now also wants to bring more people here directly from Afghanistan and Gaza – where the October 7th massacre was openly celebrated on the streets. Those coming will have the right to bring in their whole extended families too.
“While illegal migration is rife, the government should not be opening our borders even more – and we would close this scheme down immediately.”
More than 20,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year – including 1,000 in just two days.
Some 418 people were packed into five dinghies on Sunday, while 609 asylum seekers were detected in 8 vessels on Monday.
And Mr Philp warned the small boats emergency has created a “public safety crisis… especially for women and girls”.
He told the Conservative Party Conference: “Girls as young as 12 have been raped by illegal small boat migrants.
“Afghan men are 22 times more likely to commit sex offences than average – one even recently brought a 14-year old-girl he was abusing to the UK on a small boat.
“This is not just a borders crisis – it is a public safety crisis … especially for women and girls. And we must end it.
“What is Andy Burnham’s answer? Not deportation. Distribution. He thinks every town and village should have its own share of illegal immigrants.”
The senior Tory slammed “many on the left” for throwing Britain’s borders open.
He said: “Without strong borders we are no country at all.
“Many on the left think that we should let in anyone who wants to come. That every person with a claim to sympathy should be accommodated. They think only of the supposed rights of illegal immigrants. Or prioritise the rights of foreign criminals to stay here.
“We can’t keep on like this. It isn’t fair to the British people. The cost – financial and social – is simply too high.
“Borders matter. Control matters. Numbers matter.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have made progress tackling the small boats. Crossings are down significantly, and we have just recorded the lowest number of summer arrivals since 2020.
“We are taking action, with joint efforts preventing over 48,000 crossing attempts and seizing 1,100 boats and engines since the election.
“But we must go further, which is why we are boosting the number of officers on the ground in France and removing the pull factors drawing people here through illegal and dangerous routes.”
