(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s opposition Conservative party is enjoying its highest level of support in years, according to a poll by YouGov. 49 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories in the next election to the House of Commons, up five points since late April.

The governing Labour party is second with 23 per cent—down three points since last month—followed by the Liberal Democrats with 17 per cent. 11 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.

On May 1, Labour suffered major losses in local elections. Final results show the Tories received 44 per cent of all cast ballots, followed by the Lib-Dems with 25 per cent, and Labour with 24 per cent. In London’s mayoral race, former magazine editor Boris Johnson of the Conservatives defeated Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone.

On May 8, innovation and skills secretary John Denham described Labour’s problems, saying, "Too many voters felt our description of their lives wasn’t what they experienced. They won’t forgive us for not understanding what’s going on in their lives."

On the same day, Cameron declared: "We don’t want to ride to victory on the back on an unpopular government, but to really convince people that we have got the right answers."

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 a general election tomorrow, which party would you vote for?

Source: YouGov
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,578 British voters, conducted on May 7 and May 8, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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