February 08, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s Conservative party has continued to gain momentum as the governing Labour falters, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 40 per cent of respondents would back the opposition party in the next election to the House of Commons, up three points since early January.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s Conservative party has continued to gain momentum as the governing Labour falters, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 40 per cent of respondents would back the opposition party in the next election to the House of Commons, up three points since early January.

Labour is second with 31 per cent—down two points in a month—followed by the Liberal Democrats with 17 per cent.

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 Feb. 5, Cameron called for all his party members working in the House of Commons to disclose detailed information about their expenses and allowances. The proposal includes demanding all lawmakers to register every family member working for them.

Just hours after Cameron’s plea, the lower house’s Committee on Standards and Privileges released a statement saying that it "believes that, by April 1 2008, the House should have in place, within the framework of the existing registers, a system for compulsory registration of members who employ family members in connection with their duties as members and remunerate them through the staffing allowance."

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

	Feb. 3	Jan. 6	Dec. 9
Conservative	40%	37%	40%
Labour	31%	33%	32%
Liberal Democrats	17%	19%	16%
Other	12%	11%	11%

Source: Populus / The Times
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,504 British adults, conducted from Feb. 1 to Feb. 3, 2008. No margin of error was provided.