Conservative lead slashed to five points in latest poll

Theresa May's Conservative party has seen its lead over Labour cut to five points, according to the latest poll carried out by YouGov for The Times.

That margin is the lowest gap seen between May and Jeremy Corbyn's parties since she took over as prime minister following the Brexit referendum last year.

The YouGov poll shows Labour on 38% of the vote, trailing the Conservatives on 43%. Labour has gained 3 percentage points since the end of last week, while the Tories have lost one point.

May looked to be cruising towards a landslide victory in the weeks following the calling of the snap election, but a combination of Labour momentum and a backlash over the Conservative manifesto pledges have diminished her party's lead.

The Conservatives were forced into an embarrassing U-turn over the so-called "dementia tax" proposal which would have seen social care costs for elderly citizens rise.

Corbyn is due to give a major speech on national security issues on Friday, in which he will say that Britain’s foreign policy in recent years is linked to the increased threat of terror attacks in the UK.

'DEMENTIA TAX'

YouGov research director Anthony Wells said it was unlikely that May’s reaction to Monday's Manchester bombing had anything to do with the narrowing poll numbers.

"Given Theresa May’s substantial lead on taking the right decisions on terrorism it would be a mistake to assume the narrowing Tory lead is necessarily connected to the bombing," Wells said. "This is the first poll since the dementia tax row, and that seems a more plausible explanation."

Sterling fell overnight as the poll emerged, with markets reacting to the increased possibility of a closer race and potentially a Corbyn victory.

Conor Campbell, financial analyst at SpreadEx, said that the markets were jittery following the publication of the poll.

"Any growth managed by sterling since April has largely been predicated on the assumption that the Conservatives would secure a landslide victory. That this presently doesn’t seem to be the case has helped further erode confidence in the currency’s current position," said Campbell.