News from Labour Matters

Tories left red faced as poll shows Labour just 6% adrift

Conservatives today are licking their wounds after they crowed about a YouGov poll for The Sun which they said showed the Tories had increased their lead to 12%, when in reality the poll showed that the Tories have slumped to their lowest support for more than a year.

The ConservativeHome blog reported the poll’s supposed findings yesterday and other Tory websites such as Political Betting and PoliticsHome duly followed suit. The Chairman of the Conservative Party, Eric Pickles , used Twitter to rub salt into Labour’s wounds too saying:

“Enjoyed the left bragging over G[uardian] poll, which is now replace by bitterness following 12% Tory lead – advice calm down wait for a trend”

Labour bloggers however had been alerted to the possibility that the poll figures were likely to be wrong by a tweet from @BenCooper reporting UK Polling Report’s scepticism.

The Sun, which put a Conservative lead of 9% on its front page last week, has so far failed to publish the voting intention figures of their own poll, let alone put the shrinking Tory lead on the front page.

The correct figures for the poll are: Conservative: 39; Labour 33; Lib Dem 17.

Other news from Labour Matters

• Southampton Labour release alternative 'Budget for Fairness' - 6 February 2012
• "Bleak unemployment figures are bad news" says John Denham - 12 October 2011
• Westminster Council to cut Taxicard budget by £500,000 a year - 11 August 2011