October 08, 2007

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s governing Labour party is virtually tied with the opposition Conservative party, according to a poll by ICM Research published in The Guardian. 39 per cent of respondents would vote for Labour in the next general election, while 38 per cent would back the Tories.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s governing Labour party is virtually tied with the opposition Conservative party, according to a poll by ICM Research published in The Guardian. 39 per cent of respondents would vote for Labour in the next general election, while 38 per cent would back the Tories.

The Liberal Democrats are third with 13 per cent, down six points in two weeks. 10 per cent of respondents would vote for other parties. Support for Labour remained stable since late September, while backing for the Tories increased by five points.

In June, 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 called for specific action from the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) against the military regime in Myanmar—where a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators began last month—saying, "The anger of the world has been expressed about the outrages that have taken place against the people of Burma. I want the Security Council to oversee a process of reconciliation in Burma led by the secretary-general, and I want the EU to impose further sanctions on the regime to make it absolutely clear that we will not tolerate the abuses taking place. (...) We believe that there have been many more killings than the regime admit."

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 to be a general election tomorrow, which party do you think you would vote for?

	Oct. 4	Sept. 20	Sept. 16
Labour	39%	39%	40%
Conservative	38%	33%	32%
Liberal Democrat	13%	19%	20%
Other	10%	9%	8%

Source: ICM Research / The Guardian
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 977 British adults, conducted on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, 2007. No margin of error was provided.