Theresa May hugely popular among voters, who see her as in touch with 'ordinary people', poll finds

The Prime Minister’s honeymoon shows no sign of ending with exclusive poll for The Independent that finds huge majority say she is on course to win the next election

Theresa May campaigning in the 2015 general election in Yeovil (Getty)

Theresa May is more in touch with “ordinary British people” than her predecessor David Cameron, according to an exclusive ComRes opinion poll for The Independent, as her honeymoon with the voters continues.

More than half of the public, 52 per cent, say Ms May “understands what ordinary British people care about” more than Mr Cameron. Only 14 per cent say Mr Cameron understood them better. In her recent speech on grammar schools, Ms May used the phrase “ordinary working-class people” nine times.

Comparing Ms May with her Labour opponent, Jeremy Corbyn, the poll finds that 56 per cent say that, “following the EU referendum, Ms May is the right person to unite the country”. Only 19 per cent say the same of Mr Corbyn.

And Ms May is overwhelmingly expected to defeat Jeremy Corbyn in the next election. Nearly two thirds of people, 65 per cent, say that “the Conservatives are likely to win the next general election with Theresa May as leader”, four times as many as the 16 per cent who say Labour with Mr Corbyn as leader is likely to win – 19 per cent don’t know.

Of people currently intending to vote Labour, more (42 per cent) think Ms May will win than think Mr Corbyn will (37 per cent). The poll was carried out in the days before Mr Corbyn’s re-election as Labour leader was announced.

The poll also keeps up the pressure on the Prime Minister to get on with Brexit: 50 per cent say “the Government should start the process of leaving the EU as soon as possible”, while only 37 per cent say “the Government should take more time before starting the process”.

Ms May has said that she won’t trigger the two-year timetable for departure until the end of the year, but has tried to avoid being boxed in to a more precise date. Her office denied that she had told Donald Tusk, the EU president, that she intended to invoke Article 50 in January or February, and even distanced her from the suggestion by Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, on Thursday that it would happen “by the early part of next year”.

On another difficult decision facing the new Prime Minister, the poll suggests that a third runway at Heathrow airport has more supporters than opponents: 41 per cent say “the plans to expand Heathrow airport should go ahead”; 28 per cent disagree; but nearly a third, 31 per cent, say they don’t know.

ComRes interviewed 2,050 adults in Great Britain online on 21 and 22 September 2016. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all GB adults. Full tables on the ComRes website.