'Brown bounce' working as Tory lead cut

Published on Monday 1 December 2008 23:20

THE Conservative Party's lead over Labour has been slashed to just one point in a poll published last night.

The ComRes survey put the Tories down two percentage points since last month on 37 per cent and Labour up five on 36 per cent, suggesting that the "Brown bounce" remained on track.

The Liberal Democrats were up one percentage point on 17 per cent.

If repeated in a general election, the findings would give Labour a small majority due to imbalances in the UK's first-past-the-post electoral system.

The poll will encourage renewed talk of an election next year, coming after indications since last week's Pre-Budget Report that the Tories had put an end to a recent Labour surge.

They are the best findings for Labour since January, when an Ipsos Mori poll put the party one point ahead of the Tories.

The ComRes survey suggests that working-class voters have responded well to the PBR, which heralded a new 45p top rate of income tax for those earning more than 150,000 a year.

Labour support among the bottom social group, DE, has risen to 51 per cent from 35 per cent last month, it found.

ComRes contacted 1,005 British adults between 28 and 30 November .