ComRes give Tories 11 point lead

ComRes's monthly poll has topline voting intention figures, with changes from their January poll, of CON 41%(+3), LAB 30%(nc), LDEM 17%(nc). The poll was taken between February 22nd and February 24th and the full tables are available here.

ComRes tend to produce the strongest figures for the Conservative party, largely because their weighting is more favourable to them than that of ICM and Populus (equally, they tend to give the poorest figures to Labour), but it remains a substantial lead and the direction of the trend doesn't support that intriguing YouGov/Economist poll that hinted at Northern Rock's nationalisation having helped Labour.

UPDATE: The morning after and I've had chance to look at the detailed tables. This month ComRes's weighting isn't actually unduly favourable to the Conservatives - the target weighting figures that ComRes use are based on a rolling average of only 4 polls, compared to 10 for Populus and 20 for ICM. This means ComRes's weighting is far more volatile, and this month they are actually weighting past Conservative support to exactly the same level as ICM did in their last poll. Some of the difference between the companies' figures may still be down to methodology, likelihood of voting, the spiral of silence adjustment, ComRes's "squeeze question" or Lib Dem weighting, which is different.... but it's not as simple this month as ComRes weighting the Tories more highly.

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