October 13, 2007

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Two parties are dominating Britain’s political scene, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 40 per cent of respondents would vote for the governing Labour party in the next general election, while 38 per cent would support the opposition Conservative party.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Two parties are dominating Britain’s political scene, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 40 per cent of respondents would vote for the governing Labour party in the next general election, while 38 per cent would support the opposition Conservative party.

The Liberal Democrats are a distant third with 12 points—down five points since late September—and 10 per cent of respondents would vote for other parties.

In June, 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 March 2006, the Liberal Democrats chose foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell as their new leader.

Earlier this month, Cameron visited California and discussed gang violence, saying, "I think this is a place to come to understand how bad problems can get with gangs and understand what the police and other authorities can do to deal with that. Our problem in the UK is not as bad as in the U.S., of course it isn’t. But it is getting worse and we need to know what works, what we can get the police to do and what we can get society to do and families to do to make sure we deal with our gang problem and deal with it now."

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?

	Oct. 7	Oct. 3	Sept. 27
Labour	40%	39%	41%
Conservative	38%	36%	31%
Liberal Democrats	12%	14%	17%
Other	10%	11%	10%

Source: Populus / The Times
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,008 British adults, conducted from Oct. 5 to Oct. 7, 2007. No margin of error was provided.