(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Britain’s most popular party has lost support this month but remains strong, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 41 per cent of respondents would vote for the opposition Conservative party in the next election to the House of Commons, down four points since early June.

The governing Labour is second with 28 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 19 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.

On Jul. 20, Cameron refused to discuss the fiscal decisions he would make in 2010—in the event he becomes prime minister—saying, "I will do what is right to make sure we have strong public finances. We have to look at everything. I accept that putting the public finances back into a good state is going to be one of the major tasks of this government—and the next."

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 the general election was tomorrow, which party would you vote for?

Source: Populus / The Times
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,507 British adults, conducted from Jul. 4 to Jul. 6, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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