WITH less than three weeks to go before the local elections north and south of the border, Theresa May’s Tories have posted a 21-point lead over Labour for the second day running.
The YouGov poll for The Times placed the Conservatives on 44 per cent with Labour on 23; the largest lead since 2009. On Sunday, Comres put the Tories on 46 points and Jeremy Corbyn’s party on 25; the largest lead in this survey since 1983.
But the snapshot also suggested strong public support for some of Labour’s policies; more than 70 per cent said they would back the proposal for a £10 an hour minimum wage and more than 60 per cent supported raising the top rate of income tax from 45 per cent to 50 per cent.
Mr Corbyn told the Independent: “Our policies are popular because to most people it’s common sense that our Government should act in the interests of the overwhelming majority and that will mean taking on the powerful.
“The people of Britain have been held back too long but we have the ideas and the will to change the country for the better,” he insisted.
A third opinion poll over the weekend by Opinium recorded Labour narrowing the gap on the Tories to nine points.
Last week, Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, claimed Mr Corbyn was worth up to 20 points in the polls and that if her party had a different leader it could be polling in single digits.
Meantime, new analysis suggested the number of parliamentary questions tabled by some of Labour’s frontbenchers has fallen under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
Ms Abbott has tabled 28 questions in her six months in her role compared to her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, who asked 54 questions during her last six months in the job.
John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, has tabled 35 questions about the UK Government’s handling of the economy in the past 18 months compared to Ed Balls having asked 54 questions in his first year and a half in the same role.
The figures also suggested David Anderson has asked just 14 questions in the nine months he has been shadowing David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary.
In contrast, other Labour frontbenchers have tabled many scores of questions each month.
Labour backbencher Neil Coyle, a regular critic of Mr Corbyn, complained that overall there had been “a catastrophic failure to expose the shortcomings of this government”.
The London MP noted: “Some members of the Shadow Cabinet have made huge strides in holding the government to account, including health and education but others are almost invisible. They’ve been a washout.”
In a separate development, Mr Coyle insisted he would not be intimidated after an "absurd" complaint was made about him to party officials by Mr Corbyn's office.
The MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark wrote to the leader to raise concerns over the lack of briefings for MPs on Brexit and growing criticism of Labour's slow response in reacting to major news stories.
But he was then reported for "not raising questions with the line manager" to the party’s Chief Whip Nick Brown and its General Secretary Iain McNicol by the leader’s office manager Karie Murphy.
Mr Coyle said the "insinuation" was that he had been "having a go at party staff" but he accused Mr Corbyn's aides of trying to shut down critics.
“It is an absurd situation,” declared the backbencher. "Rather than address the issues I have raised, the knee-jerk reaction is to make accusations about me, make a complaint about me. I won't be intimidated.
“They're shouting down anyone who dares to raise the tiniest of concerns about losing Copeland or being 20 points behind the Tories in the polls,” he added.
However, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said Mr Coyle had been reported for "consistently abusing" party staff members.
He said: "Jeremy Corbyn has not referred Neil Coyle to the Chief Whip. Neil Coyle has been referred by others to the Chief Whip for consistently abusing members of Labour Party staff."
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