Almost 60% of voters in the red wall want to see the minimum wage raised to £15 an hour, amid a worsening cost of living crisis, a new poll has revealed.
The survey by Survation showed 57% of voters in seats which switched from Labour to Conservative at the 2019 election in the midlands and the north back the move, while only 23% are opposed.
The poll, conducted for the Autonomy think-tank and shared with HuffPost UK, also showed 42% of Tory voters in the seats support the rise, with 37% opposed.
And of people who voted Leave, 48% wanted to see the minimum wage rise to £15, with only 29% opposed.
The national living wage, for people aged 23 and over, rose to £9.50 in April.
But Will Stronge, the director of research at Autonomy, said a £10 an hour minimum wage was “beginning to look totally insufficient”.
“If the government wants to be seen as serious about levelling up Britain and tackling the cost of living then a higher minimum wage is an obvious starting point,” he said.
″£15 an hour is a fair and decent wage which would instantly boost living standards for many workers across the country.”
It comes after Rishi Sunak unveiled a £21bn package of measures, including a £400 discount on energy bills for every household, to try and help people with soaring prices.
The red wall, which fell to the Tories in 2019, is seen as key to Johnson’s hopes of winning the next election.
He will a key electoral test in the region on June 23, at the Wakefield by-election.
The contest was triggered after Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan was convicted for sexually assaulting a boy.
The Tories won the seat 3,358 in 2019, it had been held by Labour since 1932.
Winning back a parliamentary seat in the red wall would be a huge boost for Keir Starmer ahead of the next election.
Labour members backed a £15 minimum wage at the party’s annual conference in 2021.
But Starmer and the party leadership has so far only committed to a £10 minimum wage, and he was hit by a shadow cabinet resignation after he opposed a motion backing a hike to £15.