Global General
UK Conservatives on course for majority - poll
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-16 10:29
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LONDON - Britain's main opposition Conservatives are back on course to win the next election, an opinion poll published on Tuesday showed, but other surveys still pointed to an inconclusive election result.
The Opinium poll for Tuesday's Daily Express is the first newspaper survey in nearly a month to put the Conservatives on course for an outright election victory, though an online poll last week also pointed to a Conservative majority.
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If the result were repeated at the election, widely expected on May 6, the paper said the Conservatives would secure a 40-seat majority. However, calculations from the University of Plymouth and the Sky News website suggest a 28-seat majority.
The findings contrasted with a string of recent polls pointing to a hung parliament, where no single party had an overall majority. Markets are concerned an inconclusive election could impair efforts to cut Britain's record budget deficit.
A separate ICM poll for Tuesday's Guardian newspaper made centre-right Conservatives the largest party in parliament but still short of an overall majority by eight seats.
It showed Conservative support rising to 40 percent, up three points from the previous month, Labour up a point to 31 percent and the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 20 percent.
However a daily survey in the Sun newspaper continued to point towards a hung parliament where Labour would remain the largest party but without an outright majority in the 650-seat House of Commons.
Its YouGov poll put Labour on 32 percent, down two points, the Conservatives unchanged on 37 percent and the Liberal Democrats up 4 points on 21 percent.
Opinium surveyed 1,951 adults between March 12 and 15 and ICM Research interviewed 1,002 adults by telephone between March 12 and 14. The Sun did not give details of its survey.
