Sunak may benefit from undecided voters: Survey

As England gears up for local elections next month, a new survey on Saturday indicates that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may be poised to benefit somewhat from a swing towards the ruling Conservative Party from a large chunk of undecided voters. Polling for ‘The Times’ newspaper shows that almost a third of all voters either don’t know how they will cast their ballot or say they won’t vote at all. Asked who would make the best Prime Minister between Sunak and Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, the YouGov analysis shows 21 per cent say Sunak while 8 per cent back Starmer. “Undecideds are also almost four times more likely to trust Sunak and the Conservatives to handle the economy than they are to trust Labour, which in past elections has always been a good indicator of how people cast their ballot,” the newspaper analysis notes. The survey, just weeks before the May 4 polling for local councils, shows that if an election were to be held tomorrow the “don’t knows” would be the UK’s third largest party with 16 per cent of the vote – 2 per cent behind the Tories. “Tory and Labour strategists acknowledge that this group presents both the biggest opportunity to Sunak and the biggest threat to Starmer’s hopes of a healthy Labour majority when the general election comes. On the positive side for the Tories, at the moment this group seems to be leaning towards Sunak,” the newspaper poll analysis reads. A local election coming around a year before a general election is due to be held is seen as a sign of things to come for all parties in the UK.