(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The British Conservative party has a solid advantage over the governing Labour party, according to a poll by YouGov. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for the official opposition party in the next election to the House of Commons, down three points in a week.

The Labour party is second with 25 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 18 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.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague recently said that his Conservative party is the "likely winner" of the next general election. On Aug. 12, Cameron said he would not back such claims, and assured that there is "no smugness, no complacency, no triumphalism—never" among the Tories.

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 1,745 British voters, conducted on Aug. 14 and Aug. 15, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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