Brown's party narrows poll gap
UK: The Labour Party of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has
narrowed the opposition Conservatives' opinion poll lead to single
figures for the first time in a year, according to a survey on Monday.
An ICM poll for Tuesday's Guardian, posted on the newspaper's website
late on Monday, showed Labour with 31 percent support, up two points
from last month, with the centre-right Conservatives down two points to
40 percent and the Liberal Democrats down one point to 18 percent.
It was the first ICM poll since December 2008 to give the
Conservatives less than a double-digit lead, the paper said.
The result echoed the findings of a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times
at the weekend which showed the Conservatives' lead narrowing by four
points to 9 percent.
By contrast, a poll in the Independent on Sunday showed the
Conservatives' lead had widened to 17 percent, putting them on course to
return to power for the first time since 1997.
An uneven distribution of support among Britain's 650 parliamentary
constituencies means anything less than a 10-point lead for the
Conservatives raises the prospect of a hung parliament, in which no
party has an overall majority.
Tuesday's Guardian poll showed Labour's vote share had crept up for
the fourth successive month. A report in the Sunday Times at the weekend
said Labour, encouraged by polls showing a decline in support for the
Conservatives, could opt for a March 25 election.
Reuters
|