‘’More voters are choosing to trust their lived experience’
It appears GB News may be out of step with its own audience, after polling carried out for the broadcast channel found that support for Labour among its viewers had soared.
Under the new polling, GB News viewers voting intentions put Labour 11 points ahead of the Conservative Party, with viewers of the right-wing broadcaster trusting Labour more with the cost-of-living, NHS and housing.
In a further blow to Rishi Sunak the poll highlights just how out-of-touch his government is in connecting with the public, as 39% of GB News viewers plan to vote Labour at the next General Election compared to 28% for the Tories. Support for Labour had increased by 13 points in the past five years with GB News viewers, the poll finds.
Commenting on the polling on The News Agents podcast, reporter Lewis Goodall said it was a reminder that the gulf between the Tories and Labour is huge at this point, “even in organs you’d expect to be Conservative.. the gulf is so vast.”.
It comes as campaign organisation Best of Britain also published new polling on Thursday carried out by Survation which showed readers of Conservative-leaning news outlets including the Sun, Daily Telegraph and Daily Express all favoured Labour at the next general election.
Despite the papers constant Labour-bashing, 31% of Daily Express readers said they would back Labour at the next election compared to 25% for Tories, also only a quarter of Sun readers plan to cast a vote for the Tories, compared to 38% for Labour.
Niall McGourty, Director of Communications at Best for Britain commented: “More voters are choosing to trust their lived experience.
“They can see the state of public services, they can see the disaster of Brexit and they can see the chaos and scandal at the heart of government and crucially, they can see who is to blame.”
A number of Conservative MPs are or have been presenters for GB News including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey, her husband Phillip Davies and now defected Tory Lee Anderson. Boris Johnson announced with some fanfare that he would be joining the line-up, however six months on and he’s yet to appear on the station.
Nigel Farage, co-founder of right-wing populist party Reform UK is a regular host, with the GB News poll finding 20% of its viewers said they would vote Reform at the next general election.
The broadcast channel was recently found in breach of broadcasting rules when three Conservative MPs acted as newsreaders across five different episodes of its programmes. Ofcom issued a warning this week to broadcasters about using politicians as presenters, ahead of the general election.
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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