'Not good news for you!' Tory MP grilled as damning Red Wall polling puts Kemi Badenoch behind Jeremy Corbyn

The polling, conducted by Merlin Strategy, also revealed Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has established a seven-point lead over Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer among Red Wall voters.

Speaking on GB News, host Ellie Costello said: "We've had some polling done here at GB News. It's on the Red Wall, and the Red Wall voting intention. It's not good news for Kemi Badenoch.

"She polls under Corbyn, just single figures in our poll. And also, the Conservatives are on just 22 per cent in the Red Wall, according to this poll, third place in the Red Wall. And there was a poll last week that put you in fourth place, under the Lib Dems. Are you finished as a party?"

Whately responded: "So, we need to listen to the message that we got at the last general election. In fact, that's exactly what we're doing.

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"We know that people were not happy, and were frustrated with some of the things that happened towards the tail end of our time in Government, particularly after the pandemic, and with the inflation we saw from the Ukraine war.

"And we know that we need to reflect on that, show that we're listening, and actually do the hard work on what is the right offer to the country come the next general election, which is still some four years out from now.

"And that's what people will want to hear from us. And we know that some of the challenges that face this country are, they're big ones. These are serious times, we need serious politicians coming up with serious solutions."

She added: "I understand one thing that's going on is, people are really disappointed with Labour. So they voted for Keir Starmer, thinking that he had these, these nice promises and things were going to get better.

"What they've seen is that he didn't do the hard yards in opposition. They didn't come up with the right policies. They didn't have a plan.

"Instead, we've got things like the chaos over the winter fuel allowance, all those payments being taken away from pensioners, and the jobs tax, which is terrible for businesses, which is driving up unemployment, which is killing the economy, and killing, pushing down economic growth.

"So, Labour's making a real mess of everything."

The survey examined 1,000 voters in the 42 parliamentary constituencies that the Conservative Party won in the 2019 General Election under Boris Johnson, which had traditionally been Labour strongholds.

While Labour reclaimed most of these seats in last year's general election, many areas have since swung to Reform UK in this year's Local Elections, including Doncaster and County Durham.

The poll shows Conservative support has more than halved since Johnson's 80-seat majority victory in December 2019. Meanwhile, Reform's support stood at 34 per cent, giving Farage a seven-point lead over Labour on 27 per cent.

The poll also revealed a concerning picture for both major parties' frontbenchers. Ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson ranked third with 12 per cent support, followed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on nine per cent.

Current Conservative leadership contender Kemi Badenoch polled at just eight per cent, behind Corbyn, while fellow Conservative Robert Jenrick managed only three per cent.