February 26, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s main opposition party remains ahead of the governing Labour, according to a poll by ICM Research. 37 per cent of respondents would vote for the Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s main opposition party remains ahead of the governing Labour, according to a poll by ICM Research. 37 per cent of respondents would vote for the Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons.

The ruling Labour party is second with 34 per cent—down two points since late January—followed by the Liberal Democrats with 21 per cent. Eight 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.

According to the British government’s Forced Marriage Unit, about 300 people report cases of forced marriages each year in Britain. On Feb. 21, Cameron said that probably thousands of Britons are coerced into marrying someone every year, a situation he called "utterly bizarre" but true.

Cameron proposed extending the Forced Marriages Act—which his party supported—saying, "If the current legislation doesn’t work in ending forced marriages, the Conservative party would consider making them a criminal offence."

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?

	Feb. 17	Jan. 31	Jan. 20
Conservative	37%	37%	37%
Labour	34%	32%	35%
Liberal Democrat	21%	21%	20%
Other	8%	10%	8%

Source: ICM Research
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,003 British adults, conducted from Feb. 15 to Feb. 17, 2008. No margin of error was provided.