Labour opens up five-point gap over Reform UK to take highest poll lead since start of 2025

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.