Tories Fail to Dent Labour Polling Lead in Early UK Campaign

(Bloomberg) -- Keir Starmer’s Labour Party retains a 22-point lead over Rishi Sunak’s incumbent Conservative Party, as the two leaders gear up for a televised debate on Tuesday — the first of the UK general election campaign.

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Bloomberg’s polling composite — a rolling 14-day average using data from 11 UK polling companies — shows the gap between Britain’s two main parties is little changed at 21.5 points since Sunak surprised most Westminster observers almost two weeks ago by calling an early election on July 4.

Labour’s lead has withstood a barrage of policy announcements by the Tories, including compulsory national service for teenagers and a tax guarantee for pensioners. On Monday, the Tories promised to rewrite the Equality Act to change the definition of “sex” to “biological sex,” a move it has often said is required to protect single-sex spaces. The strategy is widely seen as an attempt to stop Conservative votes leaking to the right-wing Reform UK party.

Sunak and Starmer face off at 9 p.m. UK time on ITV on Tuesday. Another debate is scheduled for June 26 on the BBC. Bloomberg will be updating the polling composite regularly during the election campaign to reflect new data.

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