15 March 2010 / REUTERS, LONDON
Two new polls on Sunday pointed to an indecisive result in Britain’s upcoming election, with one suggesting the ruling Labour Party would emerge as the biggest party and the other giving the edge to opposition Conservatives.
A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times showed the center-right Conservatives with a four-point lead over Labour, down one point from a week earlier. The poll of just over 1,500 people put the Conservatives on 37 percent ahead of Labour on 33 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 17 percent. If repeated at the election widely expected on May 6, it would give Labour 302 seats in parliament against 277 for the Conservatives, the newspaper said. Neither party would have an outright majority. Financial markets fear a minority or coalition government would be reluctant to take the strong action investors want to cut Britain’s budget deficit, forecast to reach 178 billion pounds ($270 billion) this year, more than 12 percent of GDP. Markets punished the pound earlier this month after a poll showed Labour could stay in power but without a clear majority. The Conservatives are bidding to end 13 years of Labour rule. But polls increasingly point to a hung parliament, in which no party has a majority, for the first time since 1974.
