May 01, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The Conservative party is holding on to the top spot in Britain’s political scene, according to a poll by ICM Research. 39 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories in the next general election, down four points since early April.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The Conservative party is holding on to the top spot in Britain’s political scene, according to a poll by ICM Research. 39 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories in the next general election, down four points since early April.

The Labour party is second with 29 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 20 per cent. 12 per cent of respondents would vote for other parties. Support for Labour fell by three points in three weeks, while backing for the Lib-Dems increased by two points.

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.

Earlier this month, Britain’s new tax system came into effect. While the standard income tax was reduced from 22 per cent to 20 per cent, the lowest bracket—10p—was eliminated. Six ministerial aides and 70 Labour parliamentarians have publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the move.

On Apr. 24, Clegg wrote to Labour lawmakers and urged them to back a Lib-Dem amendment to the tax bill, saying, "I strongly hope that, for the benefit of many thousands of your constituents, you will join us in a cross-party effort to defeat this punitive tax change. There has still been no commitment to ensure that all people made worse off by this tax rise will be fully compensated."

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?

	Apr. 24	Apr. 3	Mar. 16
Conservative	39%	43%	42%
Labour	29%	32%	29%
Liberal Democrat	20%	18%	21%
Other	12%	7%	8%

Source: ICM Research
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,010 British adults, conducted on Apr. 23 and Apr. 24, 2008. No margin of error was provided.