'UK Labour Party leads over Conservatives for first time Since Johnson's Premiership'

The UK Labour Party has a lead in the polls over the ruling Conservative Party for the first time since Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, an Opinium poll indicated.

According to the survey conducted between September 23 and September 25 for The Observer newspaper, the United Kingdom's main opposition party has a three-point lead over the Conservatives in voting intention, with 42 per cent compared to 39 per cent.

The poll also shows that 36 percent of the people surveyed think Labour leader Keir Starmer would perform much better than Johnson (32 percent) as prime minister.

The government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be the main cause of the Conservative Party fall in voting intention, as 50 percent disapprove of the government's handling of the crisis.

Two thirds (68 percent) of the public also think the government has not acted fast enough to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, while 63 percent say the levels of testing for the COVID-19 has been insufficient, the Opinium poll added.

As of Saturday, the UK had recorded 429,277 cases of COVID-19 and 41,971 deaths, the highest official COVID-19 death toll in Europe and the fifth-largest in the world.