Labor 'overconfident' of election win as middle-class voters swing back to Tories, polls guru says

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Middle-class British voters are starting to switch back to the Conservatives because they like Rishi Sunak, according to a polling guru.

Labour has become "overconfident" in recent months, election expert Lord Hayward has said - describing the large poll leads enjoyed by Sir Keir Starmer's party as "overstated".

The influential conservative peer said: “Rishi seriously outperforms the conservative party. He has the potential - as long as Rishi doesn't waste it - for Rishi to bring the party up to his level. local by-election results of a Sunak-inspired revival in Tory fortunes that could see the party clinging to "blue wall" territory in southern England.

He added that There was evidence of voters in affluent areas seduced by Mr Sunak's 'competence'. "The real change [back to the Tories] appears to be the middle class, where the Liberal Democrats are the threat."

The peer said the recent council by-elections in Dunblane and Cambridgeshire - "territory class” – saw a “huge” improvement for the Tories over the party’s local election results in 2022.

May’s local elections will show if the Tories can stop the party’s significant gains from Sir Ed Davey in the wealthy parts of the South, he added. "I think the Liberal Democrats might face a bigger challenge than they thought."

MPs No 10 and Tories were backed by the latest Delta poll showing the Tories up eight points to 35% - cut Labor is just 10 points ahead But other recent polls show Labor benefiting from 20 point lead.

Tory peer Lord Hayward says Lib Dems could be a bigger challenge in parts of the South

Lord Hayward said voters who supported the Tories in the 2019 general election but abandoned them because of Boris Johnson's Partygate fiasco and the disastrous Prime Minister of