Labor’s lead over the ruling Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has increased to 18 percentage points, according to a poll published on Saturday.

Ahead of general elections later this year, this poll by Opinium Research puts Labor at 43% of voting intentions, compared to 25% for the Conservatives.

A previous poll by the same institute had Labor leading by 16 points.

Mr Sunak and main opposition leader Keir Starmer have now turned the economy into a high-stakes election battle.

According to the Opinium poll, Labor has a lead on economic issues, with voters assuming they will improve public services and improve the state of the British economy.

The Opinium poll was conducted online among a sample of 2,029 adults from May 15 to 17.

Another poll, by the YouGov institute, carried out on behalf of The Times newspaper and published on May 9, put Labor ahead by a much more impressive margin – 30 points – in terms of voting intentions.

The Conservatives have been in government, either as a major coalition party or on their own, since 2010. This period has been marked by historic crises, including Brexit and the novel coronavirus pandemic, while there has been no shortage of internal party squabbling: in recent years, Britain has been governed by five Tory prime ministers.