Daily Mail / ITV News March Political Poll

Voting intention poll for the Daily Mail / ITV News

BIG TWO SQUEEZE SMALLER PARTIES

With just weeks to go until polling day, the first in of a new series of ComRes voting intention polls for the Daily Mail and ITV News shows Labour and the Conservatives at level pegging on 35% of the vote each. Since the last ComRes telephone poll in February, the two main parties have squeezed their smaller counterparts, with Labour up three percentage points and the Conservatives up one. This represents the highest combined two-party vote share since September 2013. Individually, it is Labour’s highest share for six months and the Conservatives’ highest since November 2012.

UKIP sees its vote share fall three points to 10%, the lowest in a ComRes phone poll in more than a year (December 2013). It also reflects a relatively rapid decline for the party, falling from their peak of 19% as recently as last October.

The Liberal Democrats remain on 8%, with the Greens on 7%.

Con 35% (+1)

Lab 35% (+3)

LD 8% (NC)

UKIP 10% (-3)

Green 7% (-1)

Others 6% (NC)

Exactly half (50%) of voters already choosing a party say they may still change their mind about who to vote for ahead of the General Election on May 7^th, while 50% say that they have definitely made up their mind who to vote for (50%).

The poll also reveals that David Cameron and George Osborne hold the lead over their Labour counterparts on the economy, not only when it comes to who would make the country better off but who would make them personally better off. While, 45% of Britons think the British economy would be better off under Cameron and Osborne, compared to a third (34%) who think the same of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, more also think their family’s financial situation would be better off under the Conservative pair, compared to 33% who think the same of Miliband and Balls.

Britons are also more likely to think that George Osborne would make a better a Chancellor than Ed Balls (42% George Osborne, 32% Ed Balls).

Although two in five adults think the state of the British economy has improved since 2010 (40%), people are more likely to think their family’s financial situation is worse now than five years ago (33% worse, 24% better).

More than half of the public support the Chancellor’s policy announced in the budget last week for people with annuities being able to cash them in and receive the money all at once (54%). 35% oppose the change.

Findings in detail:

Q: Do you think each of the following are better or worse now than they were in 2010?

	Better	Worse	About the same	Don’t know
The state of the British economy	40%	30%	28%	2%
My family’s financial situation	24%	33%	43%	1%