More than two-thirds of people in Jesmond would not vote for this government at a general election, according to a straw poll conducted by JesmondLocal.

Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak is attempting to restore stability and credibility to his party at the end of a tumultuous year, and amid a cost of living crisis and winter of strikes.

The next general election is scheduled to be held no later than January 2025 and our survey of 150 people conducted by Facebook groups suggests fewer than a third of people in Jesmond plan to put an X against the name of a Conservative candidate.

One North Jesmond resident commented: “The Tories need to take a backseat in government. I will not be voting Tory again for a long time.” Another resident said: “They have not followed their own rules on Covid and then have backtracked on many different policies, The one I was personally most disgusted by was the children’s school meal issue in parliament.”

But Joshua Thomas Clark, who stood as a Conservative candidate for South Jesmond at the last set of local elections, urged caution. “We have to be careful about what we extrapolate from such a small sample, but these findings will motivate our campaigners and hopefully Jesmond will continue to shift towards the party that is ready to deliver the change that this great city needs.”

Jesmond is part of the Newcastle East constituency and in the last general election in 2019, the seat was held by Nick Brown with a 60% share of the vote. The Conservative increased their share of the vote by 3% during that election, but South Jesmond Labour Party councillor Charlie Gray told JesmondLocal: “It’s no surprise that so many will not be voting for the Tories at the next general election. All you need to look at is how this Tory government has been running the country. Their reckless and irresponsible actions have crashed the British economy. I’ll take this straw poll as a positive sign for Labour, but ultimately the only poll result that will matter is the result of the next general election.”