General election: Labour ahead by 2 points in latest Populus poll

Labour are 2 points ahead of the Conservatives, according to the latest poll by Populus, which shows the past week of campaigning ahead of the general election has done nothing to dent the opposition party's lead.

The survey shows Ed Miliband's party on 34 per cent, with the Conservatives on 32 per cent, having dropped a percentage point since last week. In turn, the UK Independence party has risen a percentage point to 15, while the Liberal Democrats remain on 9 per cent.

Conservative strategists have predicted there will be a so-called "crossover point", at which the Tories begin to steadily outpoll Labour, but the Populus findings suggest this remains elusive.

If these results were repeated on May 7, a uniform swing across the country would give Labour a majority of five seats. But with the party facing wipeout in Scotland at the hands of the Scottish National party, it is more likely to fall just short.

The fluctuation between the Tories and Ukip is within the margin of error, meaning there has been no significant change in the last week.

Ukip has endured a difficult campaign over the past few weeks, and academics on the Election Forecast website predicted over the weekend that party leader Nigel Farage is likely to lose his contest in South Thanet.

But the Populus findings suggest that the party's core vote strategy is paying off, with the party remaining stable on roughly the same level of support they had at this point last year.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation