First Norwich North poll

Norwich's University & College Union have commissioned an ICM poll for the forthcoming by-election in Nowich North. The topline voting intention figures for the by-election are (with changes from the general election shares of the vote) CON 34%(+1), LAB 30%(-15), LDEM 15%(-1), Green 14%(+11).

This is the equivalent of an 8 percent swing to the Conservatives, pretty much in line with national polling at the moment, though beneath those figures the actual shift has almost all been from the Labour party over to the Greens. The sample size was only 500 (and once don't knows, unlikely to votes and so on were taken out, the voting figures were based on only 294), so there's a hefty margin of error, but the Conservatives start the race slightly ahead.

This is of course an early poll - the by-election campaigning has barely started and Labour haven't even named their candidate. 18% of the people ICM contacted weren't even aware there was a forthcoming by-election, and 24% said they didn't know how they would vote (as usual ICM re-allocate a proportion of these people based on how they voted at the last election, without this adjustment the figures would have been CON 35%, LAB 28%).