ICM/Guardian - CON 28, LAB 33, LDEM 14, UKIP 14, GRN 5

Anthony Wells

— 1 min read
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The monthly ICM poll for the Guardian came out today, with topline figures of CON 28%(-3), LAB 33%(+1), LDEM 14%(+3), UKIP 14%(nc), GRN 5%(-1). Tabs are here. There's a movement from Con to Lab since ICM's previous poll, but nothing that couldn't be normal margin of error - the broader picture still suggests a very small Labour lead, with no strong trend (in November the average Labour lead was 1.6%, so far this month it's 1.3%).

This is the first time since September that any poll hasn't shown UKIP ahead of the Liberal Democrats. The previous one was also ICM, and apart from one unusual Populus poll in July you have to go right back to March to find polls from other company doing the same. ICM consistently show the highest level of support for the Liberal Democrats for methodological reasons. This is largely because of how they handle don't knows - when people say they don't know how they'd vote, ICM look at how they voted at the previous election and assume that 50% of them will end up voting the same way. This is based on recontact surveys of don't knows after previous elections and has made polls more accurate in the past... but of course, we can't know until May whether that will still hold true under the sort of political realignment we seem to be seeing this Parliament. Without the reallocation ICM's figures today would have been LDEM 11%, UKIP 15% - so it would have been quite a high Lib Dem figure anyway even without the adjustment.

Ipsos MORI's month political monitor is also due. Today's Evening Standard reported some figures, but I assume they are saving up the voting intention figures for tomorrow. The data so far is here, and shows people's optimism about the economy in general (as opposed to their personal finances) dropping to its lowest since last year. I wrote about similar findings from YouGov at the start of the month, so this does appear to be more than a single poll; people's confidence in the economic recovery does seem to be faltering a bit.

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