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Brown’s Labour Fails to Recover in Britain
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for Britain’s governing Labour party has remained stagnant this month, according to a poll by Communicate Research published in The Independent. 25 per cent of respondents would vote for Labour in the next election to the House of Commons, up one point since late July.
The opposition Conservative party continues to dominate with 46 per cent. The Liberal Democrats are third with 16 per cent. 13 per cent of respondents would vote for other parties.
In June 2007, Gordon Brown officially became Labour leader and prime minister, replacing Tony Blair. Brown had worked as chancellor of the exchequer. Blair served as Britain’s prime minister since May 1997, winning majority mandates in the 1997, 2001 and 2005 elections to the House of Commons.
Since December 2005, David Cameron has been the leader of the Conservative party. In October 2007, Cameron challenged Brown to call a snap election, but the prime minister later announced he would not hold an early ballot.
In December 2007, current parliamentarian Nick Clegg became the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, defeating environment spokesman Chris Huhne in a leadership ballot by just over 500 votes.
Brown is currently under pressure from dozens of Labour members of Parliament to introduce a windfall tax on oil companies to ease fuel prices for consumers. The prime minister has rejected the idea so far, while 70 lawmakers from his party have signed a petition urging him to consider the levy.
Jon Cruddas—a former candidate for Labour’s deputy leadership—recently supported the proposal, saying, "There are millions of people suffering from fuel poverty and it’s the job of a Labour government to tackle that. Politically, we also have to contrast that with the Tories."
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
What party would you vote for in the next general election?
|
|
Aug. 21 |
Jul. 23 |
Jul. 17 |
|
Conservative |
46% |
46% |
45% |
|
Labour |
25% |
24% |
24% |
|
Liberal Democrat |
16% |
18% |
16% |
|
Other |
13% |
10% |
15% |
Source: Communicate Research / The Independent
Methodology: Interviews with 1,014 British adults, conducted on Aug. 20 and Aug. 21, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.