Voters love Keir on Corbyn & Rishi’s tough response to Tory’s ‘nightmare’ years, Sun’s exclusive tracker reveals
RISHI Sunak’s approval score soared as he issued a tough response to questions against the Tories’ record in our Election Showdown, as our worm reveals which blows landed with viewers.
The PM highlighting his party’s strong record on education and tough lines on immigration worked, while his explanation of the Tory betting scandal fell flat, according to our analysis.
Our exclusive tracker showed voters approved of Sir Keir Starmer distancing himself from ex-boss Jeremy Corbyn, as well as the Labour chief’s personal anecdotes about the NHS.
Expert pollsters from JL Partners surveyed 1,000 representative voters split between 2019 Tory and Labour voters.
Each viewer was shown clips from our Election Showdown and asked to indicate how they felt in real-time.
The worm revealed Rishi’s worst moment was his efforts to weasel out of a probe by Political Editor Harry Cole on the Tory betting scandal.
His score went negative with both sets of voters as he told readers: “I’m as angry as anyone about this.”
JL Partners pollster James Johnson: “We’ve got anaemic worms.
“He’s not really getting the 2019 Conservative line – a key line – above the line.
“Rishi Sunak and his defence on betting didn’t quite seal the deal.”
JL Partners’ Scarlett Maguire added: “It’s the last thing Rishi Sunak needed – he needed this to be a triumph and for Keir Starmer to fall apart.
“But he had to start off on the back foot because he’s talking about this.”
Mr Sunak also won backing from 2019 Tory voters for hitting back at claims Britain had made no progress for 14 years, with his ratings soaring when he said: “If you look at what the Conservatives have done.
“We’ve ensured that schoolchildren are not just the best readers in the United Kingdom, they’re the best readers in the Western world.”
Ms Maguire said: “It’s quite hard to overcome the fact the public think they’ve failed on just about everything.
“Obviously education’s important, but we know, when we ask people time and time again, and it’s the economy and immigration that’s important to them.
“He’s fighting on this really sticky wicket. It’s difficult to talk about 14 years of success when people think the exact opposite.”
The PM also had a better showing on immigration as he told our crowd that Keir Starmer would release Channel migrants onto the streets instead of deporting them to Rwanda.
Meanwhile, Labour chief Keir Starmer scored highly with personal anecdotes about NHS care as he emotionally told our readers: “I know what the inside of an ICU unit looks like”.
He went on: “Hard-working people are having to use their savings for operations they ought to be able to get on the NHS.”
The passage even saw an improvement in his standing with Tory voters as Starmer praised public hospitals as “the best place to be”.
Pollster James explained: “This seemed like an area of weakness for Keir Starmer, this topic of whether he would choose NHS or private care for an ill or dying relative.
“The Labour line is going up the more he talks about (the NHS).
“You can see the Conservatives aren’t going right down in response to that… I think Keir Starmer will take that as a win.”
Watch our daily politics show
Watch The Sun’s DAILY Never Mind the Ballots Election Countdown show on our YouTube channel here.
Every weekday Sun Political Editor Harry Cole brings you the latest news and analysis from the election campaign trail.