Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour could lose 50 MPs at next general election because of UKIP’s potential collapse

LABOUR could lose 50 MPs because of UKIP’s disarray and potential collapse, new research has revealed.

And the major shift in the political landscape could deliver a 1980s-style landslide majority of more than 100 to Theresa May at the next general election.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s MPs have relied on votes for the anti-EU party to keep out their Tory rivals across a wave of marginal Commons seats.

But a full blown UKIP civil war sparked by a new leadership contest and a raging row over the party’s post-Brexit future is threatening to kill off a large chunk of its support.

In a report drawn up for The Sun, leading academic Professor Matthew Goodwin has predicted that Labour would lose 44 MPs to the Tories if just half of the 13% vote share that Nigel Farage’s old party got at the general election last year went over to Mrs May.

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The new PM has already taken the Tories to a 14 point poll lead over Labour - a seven year high - as UKIP voters begin to drift over to the Conservatives after the EU referendum.

The grim findings for Labour  will only deepen the party’s woes.

The University of Kent’s Prof Goodwin said last night: “If we were to take their total share of the vote then at the last general election the Conservatives and UKIP won over 80% of the vote in 4 seats, 70% in 94 seats, 60% in 227 seats and at least 50% in 356 seats.

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“Even if we were to add to the Conservative vote share only half of the UKIP vote then both parties still win at least 50% of the vote in a striking 278 constituencies.

“This is what Labour is up against”.

UKIP’s implosion and Labour’s troubles would have the effect of returning Britain’s electoral map to what it looked like in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher ruled with big majorities, Prof Goodwin added.

The academic added: “At the general elections in 1983 and 1987 many voters went Conservative.

“Then, during the Blair years, many of these seats fell to Labour but they now once again look ripe for the picking by Conservative challengers.

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“If Theresa May holds it together and Labour re-elect Jeremy Corbyn then it is entirely possible in my view –even likely- that these seats will shift back to the Conservatives especially given that most have seen their Labour majorities being whittled down in recent years.”

Labour is already braced for the expected loss of 20 MPs from upcoming boundary changes, as well as reeling from its own bitter civil war.

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A UKIP collapse would see a number of Labour rising stars lose their seats among the 50 or so at threat, including Barrow and Furness's John Woodcock and Hope's Peter Kyle.

The findings will also heap more pressure on the new PM to not wait until 2020 and force an early general election to capitalise on Labour and UKIP’s disarray.

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But despite inheriting predecessor David Cameron’s wafer thin majority of just 12, Mrs May has already ruled out the move.

A poll of Tory activists this week by the ConHome website also revealed only one in five back an early election, and 75% oppose one.