Get tough on human rights to stop the rot, Rishi Sunak told by lefty Tories as new poll gives Labour huge lead

RISHI Sunak has been urged by even moderate Conservatives to get tough on human rights – as a painful poll put the Tories 21 points behind.

A mega-survey for The Sun’s Never Mind the Ballots show showed the Tories being squeezed by Labour and the Reform party, leaving them on just 24%.

PA

Darren Fletcher

Worryingly for No10, which is hoping to build an election fight back based on undecided voters, eight in 10 say they are now unlikely to change their minds by polling day.

And Sir Keir Starmer‘s Labour Party was ahead in who would best handle all of the key policy areas, such as the economy and NHS, according to Savanta.

Remarkably, Labour even held a small lead on who has the best policy to stop the boats – even though it is busy trying to thwart the Rwanda deportation plan.

On the latest episode Tory MPs urged the PM to come out swinging.

In a significant intervention, a leading member of the One nation group of moderate Tories said the time had come to tackle the European Convention on Human Rights.

The group’s deputy leader Matt Warman MP told the show “proper changes” are required to our relationship with the Strasbourg court.

It comes as the number of migrants who have arrived in the UK so far in 2023 has hit the highest level ever recorded for the first three months of a year.

Mr Warman, a former remainer, said: “I want to see the ECHR reformed properly, not just nibbling around the edges.

“Proper changes that make it work not just for us, but for refugees themselves and for other countries around the world. So there is real work to do.”

Insisting the PM could do it, he added: “You look at what Rishi Sunak has achieved with the Windsor Framework, with a whole host of other globally significant negotiations, I think he could deliver that.”

Boss of the Tories Northern bloc Sir Jake Berry – an arch-Sunak critic – said it was too soon to write off the Tories, despite the horror polling numbers.

Sir Jake told the show: “Polls have been turned around very quickly so my advice to the Prime Minister would be if he is listening, hello Rishi, absolutely, we can do this Prime Minister.”

He added: “What people behind the doorsteps tell me is they want the governing party to get on and govern to concentrate how we change and improve people’s lives. They hate all this infighting and all those sort of questions over leadership.”

But pollster Chris Hopkins from Savanta warned chances of a turn around are small, adding: “We’ve seen a relatively stable kind of nine to 12 point lead for Keir Starmer for quite a while.”

He told the show: “It appears relatively irreversible. You know, things can change, campaigns can change things. We saw that in 2017. But at the minute, you know, polling is ultimately a now-cast bit this definitely implies that there’ll be a Tory wipeout.”

In the poll the Reform Party hit 12%, with 80% of Tory to Reform switchers say it’s a vote for the party’s policies rather than an anti-Tory move.

Today Rishi Sunak bemoaned his “hospital pass” inheritance, with the poll backing that up someway.

Only 35% say he is mostly to blame for the current state of his party but half of all those surveyed say previous leaders are mostly to blame.

He insisted in an interview with former Tory leader William Hague that despite the last few years, there are “better times ahead”.

The polling also revealed that Rishi Sunak is a drag on the party’s fortunes with 46% saying he’s not an asset to the Tory party with only 32% saying he does help the party.

Nearly half of people, some 47%, say he was a better Chancellor than PM with only 17% prefer him in 10 Downing Street.

In sheer contrast, 46% of people believe Sir Keir Starmer is an asset to the party compared to just 32% who say he doesn’t have the right answers.

In a further a worrying sign for Tory strategists Mr Sunak is trailing his opponent in a head-to-head contests.

The poll, conducted by Savanta who interviewed 3,302 adults between Monday and Wednesday, shows Labour has the best plan for managing the economy and even cutting taxes for working people.

Labour polled 47% on the best outfit for reducing the taxes despite Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt cutting National Insurance TWICE in the past five months.

The Tories are polling twenty points behind on helping working people even thought they reduced the levy by 2p in November’s Autumn Statement and the Budget earlier this month.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party also out-scored the Tories on stopping small boat crossings by 31% to 28%.

Labour are also seen as being better at representing the UK on the global stage despite not having been in power since 2010.

Asked if a change of leader could turn things around, Mr Hopkins said: “I made a prediction around conferences last year that I didn’t think Rishi Sunak would necessarily lead the Conservatives at the next election.

“I think that’s more down to Conservative MPs and their tendencies rather than what they think it’s a wise election strategy. I don’t think the voters would reward a fourth Conservative prime minister in four years

“I think it would make things even worse but I understand this tendency within certain wings of the Conservative Party to maybe think Rishi Sunak isn’t doing it, time is massively running out, let’s roll the dice, what have we got to lose?”