The Times/ITV News Tracker Poll Launches

The Times/ITV News Tracker Poll Launches

LONDON, April 19/PRNewswire/ --

- Poll Reveals Immigration is the Key Issue for Conservatives But Labour Lead Holds

Immigration is a more important influence on the voting decisions of Conservatives than of any other group. The first of the daily Times/ITV News tracker polls confirms the strong Labour position and the significance of immigration for the Conservatives.

The tracker poll will offer a unique view of Britain's views, expectations and beliefs in the countdown to May 5. Every day The Times/ITV News tracker poll will chart up-to-the minute voting intentions and question the public on the key issues of the campaign as it unfolds.

Labour is ahead on 39 per cent, with the Conservatives on 33 per cent, the Liberal Democrats on 21 per cent, and other parties on 7 per cent. The poll, based on interviews between April 15 and 18, differs only slightly from the Populus poll in The Times yesterday which put Labour on 40 per cent and the Conservatives on 31 per cent. This was conducted over the April 14 to 17 period.

The main non-internet polls show that Labour is heading for another big Commons majority, with the Lib Democrats several points ahead of where they stood at this stage of the 2001 campaign.

Nearly a fifth of Conservative supporters (19 per cent) say party positions on immigration and asylum seekers are the biggest influence so far in deciding how they will vote. This compares with 6 per cent of Labour voters and 12 per cent of Liberal Democrats

Immigration is much more important for men (15 per cent) than women (9 per cent) and for skilled manual workers (17 per cent) than for professionals and managers (7 per cent). However, party positions on public services like the NHS are still the biggest single influence, on 26 per cent: particularly for women (30 per cent) and Labour voters (34 per cent), though least for Conservatives (20 per cent).

Otherwise, the biggest influences are opinions of Tony Blair (17 per cent), on tax and public spending (15 per cent) and a negative opinion of other parties (9 per cent).

Charles Kennedy has made a more favourable impact than the other leaders so far. Nearly a third say they like him more than before and a quarter trust him more, compared with a fifth in both cases for Mr Blair and Michael Howard.

Some 44 per cent of voters say they know more about what Mr Howard stands for than before, slightly more than for either of the other two leaders. But knowing Mr Howard better has not helped him. Nearly a third think Mr Blair is a stronger leader than they did before, just ahead of the other two.

See tomorrow's Times for full detail on the poll.

Notes to editors:

1. Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,424 adults aged over 18 by telephone between April 15 and 18. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to be representative of all adults. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. For more detail see www.populuslimited.com.

2. The Times/ITV News tracker poll, conducted by Populus, will provide updated figures for voting intentions every day, along with other key indicators about the campaign. Instead of taking three days to conduct interviews, as in most newspaper polls, a tracker poll is done in a single afternoon and evening, in order to isolate that day's changes in support for the parties. The sample size is not as large each day as in a normal poll. Tracker polls add together a few days of polling and roll forward each day. Populus will conduct interviews with 350 voters a day, with each day's results being weighted to be representative. These will be combined with the previous three days to produce a total sample of 1,400, a quarter of which is renewed every night.

Source: The Times

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