March 15, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The main opposition party in Britain has lost some public support this month, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 37 per cent of respondents would vote for the Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons, down three points since February.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The main opposition party in Britain has lost some public support this month, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 37 per cent of respondents would vote for the Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons, down three points since February.

The governing Labour party is second with 34 per cent—up three points in a month—followed by the Liberal Democrats with 19 per cent. Ten 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.

On Mar. 13, Brown urged continental leaders to introduce tax cuts for a wide range of energy-efficient products, including cars, refrigerators, and others, saying, "I’m suggesting to the European Union we reduce VAT on environmentally-sensitive products, ones that can really make a difference, and I think that could be a powerful lever for change. (...) I think if Europe is serious about the environment we have to look at all means where we can reduce carbon emissions."

In European Union (EU) countries, the Value Added Tax (VAT) is harmonized and countries cannot alter their rates unilaterally.

Polling Data

If the general election was tomorrow, which party would you vote for?

	Mar. 9	Feb. 3	Jan. 6
Conservative	37%	40%	37%
Labour	34%	31%	33%
Liberal Democrats	19%	17%	19%
Other	10%	12%	11%

Source: Populus / The Times
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,502 British adults, conducted from Mar. 7 to Mar. 9, 2008. No margin of error was provided.