Polls: Labour home and dry?

The gap between Labour and the Conservatives is as wide as ever, according to Friday's YouGov poll in the Telegraph.

The twice-weekly tracking survey showed that since last weekend, Labour's support has fallen from 37 per cent to 36, but Conservative support has also declined - from 33 to 32 per cent - less than the party secured in 2001.

So far Labour have been unable to push beyond 40 per cent, but have rarely dropped far below it. However, the Conservatives appear to be struggling to hold on to their core support.

The poll also indicated that almost one voter in four currently intends to vote Liberal Democrat.

And a large proportion of YouGov's respondents - 23 per cent - still say they may change their minds between now and polling day on May 5.

The swing from Labour to the Conservatives since the last election is less than three per cent, a figure which if translated into seats is nowhere near enough to give the Tories a chance of forming the next government.

The latest Times/ITV News tracker poll published on Friday also returned positive results for Labour.

It found that many people who have lost trust in Tony Blair because of the Iraq war are still intending to vote for Labour rather than switching to another party.

Support for Labour remains solid on 40 per cent for the third day running, against 32 per cent for the Tories - up one point on the last survey.

The Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 21 per cent, and others are down one point at seven per cent.

Analysis of the decline in trust in the prime minister suggests that 22 per cent say that they once trusted him but have lost trust because of Iraq.