September 06, 2006

Abstract: - Many British voters would vote for the Conservative party under David Cameron in the next election to the House of Commons, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 42 per cent of respondents would support the Tories.

- Many British voters would vote for the Conservative party under David Cameron in the next election to the House of Commons, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 42 per cent of respondents would support the Tories.

The Labour party under current chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown is second with 33 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats led by Menzies Campbell with 16 per cent. Nine per cent of respondents would support other parties.

In a sample with home secretary John Reid as the Labour leader, the Tories are first with 40 per cent, followed by Labour with 32 per cent, and the Lib-Dems with 15 per cent.

In May 2005, British voters renewed the House of Commons. The governing Labour party secured 356 seats, followed by the Conservatives with 197 and the Liberal Democrats with 62. Labour leader Tony Blair has served as prime minister since 1997. In October 2004, Blair vowed to retire at the end of his third term in office. Brown has been mentioned as his possible replacement.

Since December 2005, Cameron has been the leader of the Conservative party. In March, the Liberal Democrats chose foreign affairs spokesman Campbell as their new leader.

Yesterday, former home secretary Charles Clarke called for an open policy debate before the Labour leadership change saying, "There is every need both to assess our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and failures in government, and then to achieve clarity about both the course we should follow in the coming years and the best way to regain the confident support of the people of this country for that course."

The next election to the House of Commons must be held on or before Jun. 3, 2010. Sitting prime ministers can dissolve Parliament and call an early ballot at their discretion.

Polling Data

If the choice at the next election is between Labour led by Gordon Brown, the Conservatives led by David Cameron and the Liberal Democrats led by Menzies Campbell, which party would you vote for—or would you vote for some other party?

	Sept. 2006	Jul. 2006	May 2006
Conservative	42%	42%	41%
Labour	33%	33%	31%
Liberal Democrats	16%	16%	18%
Another party	9%	9%	9%

If the choice at the next election is between Labour led by John Reid, the Conservatives led by David Cameron and the Liberal Democrats led by Menzies Campbell, which party would you vote for—or would you vote for some other party?

Conservative	40%
Labour	32%
Liberal Democrats	15%
Another party	13%

Source: Populus / The Times
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,504 British adults, conducted from Sept. 1 to Sept. 3, 2006. No margin of error was provided.