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New research reveals that Jeremy Corbyn has a mountain to climb to persuade the over 50s that he could be a serious contender to replace Theresa May as Prime Minister.

The Labour leader is falling far behind in the political popularity stakes among older voters, according to a Populus poll carried out for the over 50s financial services and leisure specialist Saga.

Following the party conference season Populus found the new Premier was still maintaining a very high level of satisfaction - almost two-thirds are satisfied with the job Theresa May is doing overall as Prime Minister.

Satisfaction rates are particularly high among those who voted Conservative at the last general election with 86% saying they are satisfied compared to 24% of Labour voters.

But significantly, following his re-election Jeremy Corbyn is also failing in the challenge to win over those who are dissatisfied with the new Premier – overall 23% said they were dissatisfied with May’s first months in the role but would still choose her over the Labour leader to run the country.

In fact, of those who voted Labour in the last election, 24% thought that May was doing a good job. Amazingly 40% of those Labour voters who were dissatisfied with her performance still preferred May to Corbyn as Prime Minister.

Saga’s director of communications Paul Green said: “Whilst Saga is a strictly politically neutral organisation the Saga Generations themselves have strong political opinions.

“With rumours of an early General Election being considered, these findings will be interesting reading for the main political parties as the over 50s make up the big battalion of voters who can influence the results in so many constituencies up and down the country.

“Despite the practical challenges posed by Brexit, our latest poll demonstrates that the new Prime Minister is maintaining her high level of satisfaction among this influential group.”

Satisfaction with the Prime Minister is very similar among men (64%) and women (66%) and ranges from 69% in the East Midlands to 51% in Scotland.

ENDS

Editors notes:

For further information please contact

Paul Green Director of Communications 01303 776023 or 07714414859 Paul.green@saga.co.uk

Jessica Myers Press Officer 01303 776133 Jessica.myers@saga.co.uk

Populus interviewed 9,560 Saga respondents, all aged 50+ online between 18 and 24 October 2016. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules; for more information see www.populus.co.uk.

	Conservative	Labour	UKIP	Lib Dem	Green	SNP	Plaid Cymru
I am satisfied with the job Theresa May is doing overall as Prime Minister	86%	24%	69%	50%	28%	23%	35%
I am dissatisfied with the job that Theresa May is doing overall as Prime Minister – BUT I’d still prefer to have her as Prime Minister than Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister	13%	31%	29%	39%	32%	36%	35%
I am dissatisfied with the job that Theresa May is doing overall as Prime Minister – and I’d prefer to have Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister instead	-	45%	2%	11%	41%	40%	30%