(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s governing Labour party has an eight-point lead over the opposition Conservative party, according to a poll by ICM Research published in The Guardian. 40 per cent of respondents would back the governing party in the next election to the House of Commons, up one point since late August.

The Conservatives are second with 32 per cent—down three points in less than a month—followed by the Liberal Democrats with 20 per cent. Eight 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.

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.

On Sept. 20, a group chaired by former Conservative science minister Ian Taylor called on the government to create a Department for Science in order to boost the nation’s competitiveness and "put science at the heart of its plans to enhance the prospects of the UK becoming a sustainable and competitive knowledge-based economy."

Cameron referred to the report prepared by Taylor’s group and called it "constructive and effective", adding, "The Conservative party is acutely aware that science and engineering are key to our national competitiveness." The Tory leader also committed to study the document further to decide whether to adopt its ideas as policy.

Polling Data

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

Source: ICM Research / The Guardian
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,005 British adults, conducted on Sept. 13 and Sept. 16, 2007. No margin of error was provided.

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