Lib Dems up in latest ICM poll

There is a new ICM poll in the Sunday Telegraph which is - rather inexplicably - already up on their website here. The topline figures with changes from the last ICM poll are CON 40%(-4), LAB 28%(-4), LDEM 22%(+6). The poll was conducted on the 4th and 5th February.

The changes since the last poll are rather odd - Nick Clegg got some good media coverage launching his parties new education policy... but probably not 6 percentage points worth! As ever it's worth being a bit wary of any poll showing a big shift in any party's support. My suspicion here is that the previous ICM poll's Lib Dem figure was an anomoly - it had them three points down at 16%, which was their lowest score under Nick Clegg and meant YouGov and ICM were showing the Lib Dems on the same figure, whereas normally ICM have them a couple of percentage points higher. Moving up to 22 is still very good for the Lib Dems, their highest level of support for a long time when most other polls show them in decline - for that reason, treat it with some caution till it starts showing up in other polls.

It's the second poll since Labour's recovery turned sour to show Labour below 30%, though ICM tend to get a lot more attention than ComRes. It's the first time ICM have put Labour that low since July 2008, though they had been in an even worse position before that - in June 2008 ICM had Labour at 25% and 26%.

Other questions in the poll apparently include a question asking whether Alistair Darling should be replaced - 51% think he should, 43% think he should stay at the Treasury (though the Sunday Telegraph's write up implies this is a largely a partisan response, with Tory and Lib Dem respondents saying they'd like him gone and Labour voters saying they think he should stay.The poll also included a question on "British jobs for British workers", 50% said they would like to see a tighter regime for EU workers and 46% think EU citizens should have the freedom to work in the UK.