The headline from the ComRes/Independent poll that came out last night was that Labour has lost its lead over the Tories for the first time since October 2010 – they are now level on 37 points.
Good result for the Tories, especially just after a round of local elections were just a few months ago they were bracing themselves for a thrashing. Support for Labour didn’t fall to produce this result. It was the Conservatives who moved up to equal them.
However for me, the attention-grabbing aspect of this poll is the fact that the Lib Dems are back up by a point to 12.
In addition, as Mike Smithson points out, there is a disparity between the different party’s supporters and how likely they are to vote. 90% of those who identify as Tory say they voted last year, as do 88% of Lib Dems, while 83% of Labour supporters turned out.
Of course, this is just one poll, but the point to take forward from this, I think, is that Labour can no longer rely on a Lib Dem freefall to boost their popularity. Ed Miliband is on his honeymoon at the moment, but when he gets back he’s going to need to cement a killer strategy to start energising his supporters and capturing headlines for something other than criticising the coalition.
The full tables for the ComRes/Independent poll can be found here
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