UK Labour tipped for historic election win in new polls

LONDON: Two polls published on Wednesday found the UK´s Labour party was set to win a record-breaking number of seats and the incumbent Conservatives due for a historic drubbing in next month´s general election.

With voters heading to the polls in just over two weeks time, the latest pair of nationwide surveys -- by YouGov and Savanta/Electoral Calculus -- showed Labour set to win either 425 or 516 out of 650 seats.

Either of the results would be the current opposition party´s best-ever return of MPs in a general election.

Meanwhile, the twin polls showed support for the Tories -- in power since 2010 -- plummeting to unprecedented lows, with one estimating they would win just 53 seats.

The Savanta and Electoral Calculus survey for the Daily Telegraph newspaper predicted Rishi Sunak would become the first sitting UK prime minister ever to lose their seat at a general election.

The poll, which forecasts three-quarters of Sunak´s cabinet also losing their seats, would hand Labour a majority of 382 -- more than double the advantage enjoyed by ex-prime minister Tony Blair in 1997.

It also showed the centrist Liberal Democrats just three seats behind the Conservatives on 50, and the Scottish National Party losing dozens of seats north of the English border. The YouGov survey predicted Sunak´s party would win in just 108 constituencies.