(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s main opposition party has gained public support this month, according to a poll by YouGov published in the Daily Telegraph. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for the Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons, up four points since late September.

The governing Labour party is behind with 31 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 15 per cent. Nine 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.

The British economy has been severely hit by both a domestic and international financial crisis.

On Oct. 8, Philip Hammond, the Conservative shadow chief secretary to the treasury, criticized Labour’s handling of the economy in the past decade, saying, "Over the last ten years, Britain has fallen 10 places in the World Economic Forum competitiveness rankings. Stealth taxes, a persistent skills gap, red tape and poor management of the public finances have all taken their toll on Britain’s reputation as a place to do business. As a result, Britain is worse prepared than over 100 other countries to weather the economic slowdown."

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 there were a general election tomorrow, which party would you vote for?

Source: YouGov / Daily Telegraph
Methodology: Online interviews with 2,048 British voters, conducted from Oct. 1 to Oct. 3, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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