Poll boost for Tories

Conservative party hit 15-year opinion poll high

Sunday, 14, Oct 2007 12:00

The Conservative party has edged further ahead of Labour according to the latest opinion poll.

The Sunday Telegraph/ICM survey gives the Tories their highest support since a month before Black Wednesday in 1992 while John Major was prime minister.

David Cameron's party are up five to 43 per cent in today's poll, with Labour down two to 36 compared to a similar survey conducted a fortnight ago.

Since then the Tories have unveiled popular policies on inheritance tax while prime minister Gordon Brown has been attacked over a politicking visit to troops in Iraq and his decision to rule out an autumn general election.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Cameron also points to Mr Brown's insistence that a referendum does not need to be held on the impending EU reform treaty.

"I think people are tired of being treated like fools by the government, whether over the decision to cancel the general election, the kind of tax con we saw again in this week's pre-Budget report, or the fake arguments in defence of the European constitution," he said.

If the ICM poll was to be translated into the House of Commons, Mr Cameron would possess a single-figure majority, while the Liberal Democrats (reduced to just 14 points in the survey) would have only a handful of MPs.

But while the poll points to a Tory win at a general election, Mr Brown still enjoys a 20-point lead over Mr Cameron when respondents, 1,010 of whom were quizzed between October 10th and 11th, were asked as to who was the strongest leader.