Tories seize poll lead after promises of £7bn tax cut

YouGov research for The Times shows that voters strongly endorse Mr Cameron’s promise to lower income tax by 2020
YouGov research for The Times shows that voters strongly endorse Mr Cameron’s promise to lower income tax by 2020
JACK HILL/THE TIMES

David Cameron’s multibillion-pound tax cuts for Britain have propelled the Conservative party back into its first opinion poll lead for almost three years.

In a dramatic vindication of the prime minister’s £7 billion pledge to families at the end of the Tory conference on Wednesday, a YouGov poll showed last night that he had knocked Labour off the top spot.

The last time Ed Miliband’s party trailed in the polls was in March 2012, just before George Osborne’s infamous “omnishambles” budget. With seven months to go before the general election, the Tories have now inched back ahead by a single point.

Asked which party they would vote for if the election were tomorrow, 35 per cent of people backed the Tories against 34 per cent