Howard receives poll boost
Michael Howard has received a belated first anniversary present as Conservative Party leader after an opinion poll put his party only a point behind Labour.
A Populus poll for The Times carried out last weekend puts Labour on 34 per cent with the Conservatives on 33 per cent – a rise of five points from a rating of 28 per cent in October. The Liberal Democrats slumped from 25 to 22 per cent.
Mr Howard has also seen his own rating go up to 4.54 from a low point of 4.15 in October. He is still behind Charles Kennedy and Tony Blair – who are on 4.87 and 4.85 respectively – but the Prime Minister’s rating fell sharply from 5.31.
The Conservative leader celebrated a year in charge of the party on Saturday amid criticism that he had only made small advances in the polls.
The Conservatives’ poor rating in October can partly be attributed to timing – the opinion poll was taken at the end of Labour conference week after the Conservatives found themselves in fourth place in the Hartlepool by-election.
Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,504 adults aged over 18 by telephone between November 5th and 7th.
