October 14, 2007

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s governing Labour party is enjoying a period of stability, according to a poll by YouGov published by The Times. 41 per cent of respondents would vote for Labour in the next election to the House of Commons, up one point since earlier this month.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s governing Labour party is enjoying a period of stability, according to a poll by YouGov published by The Times. 41 per cent of respondents would vote for Labour in the next election to the House of Commons, up one point since earlier this month.

The opposition Conservative party is second with 38 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 11 per cent. 10 per cent of respondents would vote for other parties. Support for the Tories increased by two points, while backing for the Lib-Dems fell by the same margin.

In June, 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 March 2006, the Liberal Democrats chose foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell as their new leader.

On Oct. 6, Brown announced he will not call an early election—following weeks of speculation—saying, "Over the summer months we have had to deal with crises; we have had to deal with foot and mouth, terrorism, floods, financial crises. And yes, we could have had an election based on competence, and I hope people would have understood that we acted competently. But what I want to do is show people the vision that we have for the future of this country in housing and health and education and I want the chance, in the next phase of my premiership, to develop and show people the policies that are going to make a huge difference and show the change in the country itself."

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?

	Oct. 6	Oct. 4	Sept. 28
Labour	41%	40%	43%
Conservative	38%	36%	32%
Liberal Democrats	11%	13%	15%
Other	10%	11%	10%

Source: YouGov / The Times
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,757 British adults, conducted on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6, 2007. No margin of error was provided.