Liberal Democrats enjoy poll boost after spring conference
The Liberal Democrats are up two points in a new poll.
The Populus poll for The Times puts Charles Kennedy’s party on 20 per cent, up two percentage points on last month, with Labour down the same number on 39 per cent.
The Conservatives were unchanged on 32 per cent.
It is the first signs of movement for the Lib Dems in the last month, with polls for The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Times, all showing the party unmoved or losing position.
The poll follows the Lib Dem spring conference over the weekend.
There, Mr Kennedy launched his party as the “real alternative” to Labour.
He said his party was the only political force to “stand up” to the Government over the Iraq war, control orders and immigration.
The poll will bring some gloom for Conservative leader Michael Howard whose campaign to highlight the plight of pensioner Margaret Dixon, who had a shoulder operation postponed seven times, has had limited success.
More than seven out of ten respondents agreed that “politicians are being cynical when they raise cases like this and do so for party advantage”. Twenty-one per cent disagreed.
Only 22 per cent agreed to the statement that “if the Conservatives were in government, their policies for the NHS would bring an end to cases like this”. More than three fifths (64 per cent) disagreed.
The majority of interviewees said they were turned off by the negative campaigning witnessed over the last week.
Four fifths of respondents said the main political parties have “just been attacking each other rather than explaining their policies”.
On the NHS, 73 per cent said their personal experience of the public service had been good over the last year. This compares to 64 per cent who said they believed the NHS had improved nationwide over the same period.
In terms of schools, 60 per cent said their personal experience had been good, up on the 52 per cent who said nationwide schools had improved.
On transport, 49 per cent of people (a rise of eight per cent) said their personal experience had been good, compared to a six per cent rise to 38 per cent nationally.
Six out of ten (61 per cent) disagreed that they had a “clearer idea of the policies of the main political parties than I did a few weeks ago”. Just a third (35 per cent) agreed.
Populus interviewed 1,524 adults aged over 18 by telephone between March 4 and 6.
