(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The opposition Conservative party remains ahead in Britain’s political scene, according to a poll by YouGov published in The Sun. 41 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories in the next general election, down three points since mid-September.

The governing Labour party is second with 31 per cent—up seven points in a week—followed by the Liberal Democrats with 16 per cent. 12 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.

The survey was conducted after Brown delivered a speech to the Labour Conference in Manchester, where he declared: "The British people would not forgive us if at this time we looked inwards to the affairs of just our party when our duty is to the interests of our country. I know what I believe. I know who I am. I know what I want to do in this job. And I know that the way to deal with tough times is to face them down."

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 / The Sun
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,536 British voters, conducted on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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