Voters think Labour is more divided than ever, poll suggests

Owen Smith lost the Labour leadership contest to Jeremy Corbyn. Credit: Danny Lawson / PA Wire

The majority of voters think Labour is more divided than they can ever remember, according to a new poll released following Jeremy Corbyn's re-election as party leader.

The ComRes survey for the Sunday Mirror and Independent found that 39% of those questioned think the party has been "taken over by the hard left", compared to just 25% who disagreed.

The survey found just 16% of voters thought Labour was likely to win the next general election under Mr Corbyn's leadership, against 65% who thought Theresa May's Conservatives were more likely to win again.

And the poll - which was taken before the result of the leadership contest was announced - suggested that voters believe Owen Smith would have had a better chance than Corbyn of leading Labour into office, by a margin of 38%-31%.

Mrs May was considered more in touch with voters than David Cameron. Credit: Christopher Furlong / PA Wire

Just 19% said Mr Corbyn was the right person to unite the country after the vote to leave the EU, compared to 56% for Mrs May.

And almost half (48%) rejected the idea that the Labour leader was "inspiring a new political generation", while around a third thought he was.

But Mr Corbyn scored well for taking politics outside the Westminster bubble, with 41% saying he had managed to do this, compared to 24% who said he had not.

The survey also found that Mrs May was considered more in touch with voters than her predecessor as PM, with 52% saying she understood more what ordinary British people cared about, against 14% for David Cameron.

ComRes interviewed 2,050 adults on September 21 and 22.