Latest poll (ICM/Guardian): Conservatives 25 seats short of a majority.
After a record number of polls during the election campaign it all went quiet for a while. But with a few now published, some revealing trends are beginning to emerge.
The first ICM/Guardian poll since the election has been released, and shows the Conservatives on 39 per cent (+1), Labour on 32 per cent (-1) and the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 21 per cent, figures identical to those in the most recent YouGov poll.
Lib Dem support is down 3 points since the election, but that’s in line with past trends and suggests no significant shift against Nick Clegg’s party.
I have always been sceptical of claims that the Lib Dems’ decision to enter government with the Tories would prompt a wave of defections to Labour. So it’s worth noting that most voters say the coalition agreement has made no difference to their decision to support the Lib Dems and that a quarter say it will make them more likely to vote for the party.
Fifty-nine per cent of voters approve of the coalition agreement, almost exactly the joint share of voters who support the Tories and the Lib Dems, with 32 per cent opposed.
New Statesman Poll of Polls
Hung parliament; Conservatives 25 seats short.
Most encouraging, as the coalition prepares to announce plans for a referendum on the Alternative Vote, is the strong public support for electoral reform, giving the lie to the canard that this is an elite interest. Fifty-six per cent of voters are in favour of a more proportional system, with 38 per cent opposed.
There is even a significant minority of Conservatives — 45 per cent — in favour of reform, with 49 per cent supporting retention of first-past-the-post.
I’m not expecting to see a Tories for Electoral Reform group start up any time soon, but it is heartening to know that David Cameron’s claim that reform would hand more power to the “political elites” has been ignored by at least some of his own voters.
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