Jeremy Corbyn almost three times more popular than Theresa May among London remain voters, poll shows

Among Londoners who voted to leave the EU Theresa May still has higher levels of support

More Londoners would prefer Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister than Theresa May (PA)

A poll of Londoners has found that among those who support remaining in the EU, Jeremy Corbyn is over three times more popular than Theresa May.

The survey of over a thousand Londoners, carried out by Queen Mary University of London and YouGov, shows that of those who voted to remain in the European Union last year, just 13 per cent said Theresa May would make the best prime minister.

In comparison, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was far more popular, with 45 per cent of London’s remainers saying he would make the best prime minister.

The Labour leader is also the overall favourite of all Londoners to become prime minister, with 35 per cent of Londoners supporting him, compared to just 22 per cent of respondents who said they thought Ms May would be best.

Among Londoners who voted to leave the EU however, Ms May still has considerably higher levels of support, with 40 per cent backing her, compared to just 20 per cent who said they would support Mr Corbyn.

Ahead of the 2016 referendum, the newly anointed Labour leader was forced to clarify his position on EU membership. Despite having historically expressed doubts over British membership of the bloc, Mr Corbyn campaigned to remain in the EU. He was later accused of leading a “lukewarm” campaign.

Meanwhile Theresa May infuriated many senior Conservatives ahead of the Brexit vote by refusing to campaign in favour of remaining in the EU. However, it subsequently emerged that the then Home Secretary had privately warned that companies would be likely to leave the UK if it left the EU.

“A lot of people will invest here in the UK, because it is the UK in Europe,” she said at a private conference with bankers ahead of the referendum.

Since then, Mr Corbyn and Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer, have aimed to recalibrate Labour as a pro-European party that will carry out a “soft Brexit”, however the party then voted against debating Brexit at its annual conference, which its own MPs said would brand it “a laughing stock”.

Theresa May suffered a far worse setback by calling for a general election widely recognised as the means by which she hoped to secure a mandate for a “hard Brexit”. The party lost its parliamentary majority, and Labour regained 31 seats.

The latest polling results show Labour is far ahead of the Conservatives in London, with a total of 43 per cent of Londoners behind Mr Corbyn’s party, compared to just 23 per cent who said they would vote for the Tories if there was an election tomorrow. A further seven per cent said they would vote for the Liberal Democrats, five per cent for other parties, eight per cent said they would not vote, and 15 per cent said they didn’t know.