June 27, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Support for Britain’s official opposition party continues to grow, according to a poll by ICM Research published in The Guardian. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for the Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons, up three points since early June.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Support for Britain’s official opposition party continues to grow, according to a poll by ICM Research published in The Guardian. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for the Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons, up three points since early June.

The governing Labour party is second with 25 per cent—down one point—followed by the Liberal Democrats with 20 per cent. 10 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.

Cameron has asked members of his party to submit a declaration of their expenses as part of a plan to increase accountability to the public. All Tory shadow ministers are expected to return a detailed declaration of how they spend their allowances in July. On Jun. 24, Cameron urged all party members to comply with the request, admitting that Conservatives are "part of the problem" of lack of accountability in politics, and must become "part of the solution".

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?

	Jun. 22	Jun. 5	May 18
Conservative	45%	42%	41%
Labour	25%	26%	27%
Liberal Democrat	20%	21%	22%
Other	10%	11%	9%

Source: ICM Research / The Guardian
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 British adults, conducted from Jun. 20 to Jun. 22, 2008. No margin of error was provided.