A leader who continues to shoot himself in the foot, a country with more problems than answers; and an election without any fire or brimstone

Britain's election campaign is as miserable as its weather.

A Survation poll published by the UK's Sunday Times predicted the Conservatives could end up with just 72 seats in the 650-member House of Commons, the lowest in their nearly 200 year history, while Labour would romp in with 456 seats.

The UK's ruling Conservative Party could be staring at electoral oblivion, according to the latest opinion polls out this weekend, with one commentator suggesting they could even be vulnerable to a hostile, aggressive takeover by Nigel Farage's right wing Reform Party.

Less than three weeks out from the 4 July UK elections, the most devastating poll from YouGov put Reform UK one percentage point ahead of the Tories, in what is called a "crossover moment".

A Survation poll published by the UK's Sunday Times predicted the Conservatives could end up with just 72 seats in the 650-member House of Commons, the lowest in their nearly 200-year history, while Labour would romp in with 456 seats.

The third poll, by Opinium for Sunday's Observer put Labour well ahead with 40 percent of the vote, the Conservatives on 23 percent and Reform on 14 percent.

Words such as 'electoral extinction' and 'wipeout' are being used to describe the Conservatives' outlook.

"It's getting worse and worse by the day, by the hour, maybe even by the minute," says Newshub Europe correspondent Lisette Reymer.

"It feels like Rishi Sunak actually cannot do anything right," she says, pointing to a series of gaffes since the day he called an early election in the pouring rain on the steps of Downing Street.

The most damaging was his decision to leave the 80th anniversary D-Day commemorations early to do an election interview. Sunak's swift apology and admission that he made the wrong decision simply fuelled the criticism, says Reymer.

But the Conservatives' poor polling reflects not only Sunak's unpopularity but people's disgruntlement over the way they've been treated in the past 14 years by the Tory governments.

"A lot of people have felt really neglected by the Conservatives, disregarded and forgotten," she says.

People are willing to back Labour's Sir Keir Starmer as the next Prime Minister - even though they know little about him or what he stands for - because they think he will be better than another five years in power for the Conservatives…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details