Polls shed light on Brown backtrack
Three new opinion polls have put the Conservative party ahead of Labour; a day after Gordon Brown ruled out an election this year.
The newspaper surveys have largely been credited with swaying the prime minister from calling an early election, although he insists he needs time to develop his “vision for change”.
Speaking from Downing Street yesterday, Mr Brown said he had “no doubt” that Labour would win an election if one was called.
In the first of today’s three polls, originally unveiled yesterday as it emerged Mr Brown was to end talk of a snap election, the Tories are shown to have a six point lead over Labour in key marginal seats.
The News of the World/ICM survey claims that 49 Labour MPs would have been unseated in an autumn general election, including home secretary Jacqui Smith.
According to ICM, this would see Labour take 306 seats and the Tories 246 in a hung parliament.
In the Sunday Times meanwhile Mr Cameron’s party was given a three point advantage in a YouGov poll, representing a 13-point turnaround for the Tories since the newspaper published a similar survey last weekend.
And the Mail on Sunday, which today led with the headline Brown Bottles It, puts the Conservative party one ahead of Labour on 39 points.
