Jeremy Corbyn increases dominant lead over Angela Eagle and Owen Smith among Labour Party members, poll finds

54% of party members surveryed would give first preference to current Labour leader

Mr Corbyn insisted he would stay on as Labour leader despite warnings from the Parliamentary Labour Party (Reuters)

Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity among Labour Party members has grown even more despite losing a no confidence vote by MPs heavily last month.

According to a Times/YouGov poll of Labour members, the party leader would beat leadership contest rivals Angela Eagle and Owen Smith by more than 30 points.

The majority of those surveyed think Mr Corbyn is doing well, at 55 per cent, an increase of four points in a fortnight, while the proportion of those who think he is doing badly has dropped by seven points to 41 per cent.

The poll, taken from a sample of 1,019 Labour members who joined before the start of 2016 – in line with party voting rules – also found Mr Corbyn would receive 54 per cent of first preference votes.

Taken between Friday and Monday, 44 per cent said they would definitely vote for Mr Corbyn in September, up 8 per cent on a fortnight ago, with a further 13 per cent saying that they would probably vote for him. Forty per cent said that they would not vote for him.

He would soundly beat Ms Eagle (21 per cent), who is facing a vote of no confidence in her own constituency, Wallasey, and fellow leadership contender Mr Smith (15 per cent). In a head-to-head contest, the Labour leader would beat Ms Eagle by 24 points, with 58 per cent of the vote. Mr Corbyn would beat Mr Smith by 22 points, taking 56 per cent.

There are around 375,000 members of the Labour Party, however more than 100,000 of them will not be eligible for the September vote, having registered since the beginning of 2016.

The Labour Party’s MPs voted 172 to 40 against Mr Corbyn’s leadership in a secret ballot held earlier this week.

A ComRes poll for The Independent found one in three Labour voters think Theresa May would be a better Prime Minister than Jeremy Corbyn.

It also revealed the new Prime Minister out-polls the Labour leader among every age group for support.