Two new polls show support for "Others" fading
There are two new polls in the Sunday papers. First up YouGov for the Sunday Times have topline figures, with changes from their last poll, of CON 42%(+2), LAB 25%(+1), LDEM 18%(+1). Others are at 15%, so down 4 points from YouGov's last poll.
ComRes for the Sunday Indy has topline figures, with changes from ComRes's last poll, of CON 38%(+2), LAB 23%(-2), LDEM 22%(+3). Others are at 16%, which is again down 4 points.
Like the ICM poll in the week did, both polls show the high level of other support beginning to fall away as the European election effect recedes. It's still high compared to the situation before the expenses scandal (and is very high by historial standards) but it appears to be on it's way down.
As support for others recedes, it's the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats who are benefitting. All the pollsters have the Conservatives and Lib Dems rising as the others drop away, with Labour variously static, falling, or marginally up. I can't let the poll pass without commenting on that one point gap between Labour and the Lib Dems, the lowest we've seen since May, though of course, it's only one pollster; YouGov and ICM are both showing Labour seven points ahead of the Lib Dems.
UPDATE: Looking at other questions the Sunday Times, as usual, commissioned questions on a wide range of topics - full tables are here. On the standard trackers there are no great changes in the leader net good job/bad job ratings. Cameron is at +26 (up 1), Brown at -47 (up 3), Clegg at +17 (down 1).
On the charitable status of private schools, 37% agreed that private schools should be encouraged as they eased the burden on taxpayers, 23% said they allowed parents to buy a better education for children and should be discourage (25% agreed with neither statement). 55% thought that the charity commission was right to pressure private school into subsiding more places for pupils from poor backgrounds.
YouGov also asked about Afghanistan. 72% of people thought stabilising Afghanistan was a worthwhile objective, but only 24% said it was worth risking the lives of British troops (even that 72% was a fall from the last time YouGov asked the question in March, when 78% of people agreed it was).
There was, however, slightly more support for sending British troops there. In March 43% of people said Britain should withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, that figure has now dropped to 33%. In March only 8% said Britain should send more troops, and 30% that other NATO countries should send more troops. Those figures are now 14% and 36%.
Asked about army equipment, 20% thought Gordon Brown was doing his best to provide British toops with the equipment they need. 60% though the war was being fought "on the cheap" and troops were not being adequately supplied.
ComRes also asked about Afghanistan. Asked if more troops should be committed to Afghanistan 34% agreed, asked if British troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan 64% agreed. The results are different from YouGov's, but of course, so was the question, given that YouGov gave the people the option of saying they would like more NATO troops from other countries to be sent there.
UPDATE 2: The Sunday Times' claim that this is the Conservatives' biggest lead over Labour since September last year isn't true - it's the result of newspapers' charming tendency to believe that polls commissioned by other newspapers don't actually exist, even if they are carried out by the same pollster using the same methodology.
YouGov have in fact shown several larger Conservative leads this year.
