Labour still trails Tories

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

London

Oct. 4: The Opposition Conservative party is maintaining a strong lead over the Labour party despite the bounce that the ruling party got after Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s keynote address at the annual conference in Manchester.

Two opinion polls released on Saturday gave the party led by David Cameron a good double digit lead although Labour has performed better in ratings. A YouGov opinion poll of 2,048 Britons for Daily Telegraph has given the Tories at 45 per cent a 14-point lead over the ruling party. The Labour at 31 per cent has gained seven points since last month. An ICM poll of 1,008 adults for the Guardian gave the Tories a 12-point lead. The Conservative party at 42 per cent led the Labour party on 30 per cent and Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent.

The two surveys, which were conducted after the annual Conservative party conference in Birmingham, had almost identical results over the opinion of voters on the question of economic competence of the two main political parties.

The YouGov poll gave the Tories a small lead over the Labour party: 34 per cent of respondents trust the Conservatives to get Britain out of the present financial crisis and 27 per cent named Labour. However, 29 per cent neither trust Labour nor Conservatives.

The ICM survey revealed that 35 per cent support Labour team of Mr Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling as the best team and 37 per cent supported the Conservative team.