Over 40% of UK voters would vote for new party in future election: Poll

The survey study, conducted between September 11 and 13 by Opinium poll and released Saturday by The Observer, further revealed that nearly half of the voters in the UK do not sense a strong leadership from the country’s two main political parties, with 47 percent of the 2,011 respondents regarding Tory’s Theresa May as a weak leader and 49 percent saying Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn is not a strong leader.

Just over one-third, or 35 percent of those polled also stated that they felt unrepresented by the two main parties, according to the new survey.

Asked to imagine that a new center-ground party is formed tomorrow, two in five voters – or 42 percent -- said they would be inclined to vote for it in a future general election.

The survey further showed that the Conservative Party is regarded as equally as divided as the rival Labour Party. Nearly three in five – or 57 percent -- believe the Tories are divided, up from 47 percent in December 2017. The same proportion (57 percent) also believes that Labour is divided, up from 40 percent in December 2017.

The study also points to a growing appetite for a new political party amid a persisting internal strife within both the Conservative and Labour parties.

The new findings come as the UK’s Liberal Democrats party (Lib Dems) is trying to pitch itself as the right vehicle for moderates turned off by the internal strife among the Tories and Labour. The party’s annual conference begins this weekend, though it has failed to capitalize on the divisions inside its rivals.

Speaking before his party conference in Brighton Lib Dems leader Vince Cable said he wanted to “make an open pitch to the people of this country who are fed up with the extremes of the current Conservative and Labour parties,” as quoted in a report by The Guardian.

“Whether you see yourself as a liberal, social democrat, progressive, or centrist, there is a home for you here, particularly as we fight Brexit together,” Cable boasted.

According to British press reports, the Tories retained their one-point lead over Labour in the poll recorded last month. May’s lead over Corbyn on who would make the best prime minister has also surged from last month, rising from six points to nine points.

However, May has suffered a setback in the number of those who believe she is decisive, down from 41 percent in April to just 29 percent this month. It means she only has a one-point lead over Corbyn in terms of who voters regard as a decisive leader.