Polls say UK election too close to call

The British general election is too close to call, opinion polls suggested days after campaigning officially began for the May 6 vote.

The opposition Conservatives had led Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party for most of the past 18 months but the gap has narrowed in recent months and many commentators are predicting one of the tightest races in decades.

An ICM survey for the News of the World newspaper of 96 key Labour-held marginal seats found Conservative support had dropped four points to 36 per cent since January, while Labour was unchanged on 37 per cent.

Lib Dems surge

In third, the Liberal Democrat party surged five points to 19 per cent.

The pollsters said a similar result on election day would hand the Conservatives the biggest number of seats in parliament but not enough for a majority, a rare situation in Britain known as a hung parliament.

A number of new national polls supported this view.

An ICM survey for the Sunday Telegraph put the Tories on 38 per cent, up one point on a similar poll published on the first day of campaigning on Tuesday. Labour were down three points on 30 per cent and the Lib Dems unchanged at 21.

Tories up slightly

A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times also put the Tories up one point on its poll last week, to 40 per cent, but Labour were up three at 32 per cent and the centrist Lib Dems were down two on 18 per cent.

A third national poll by ComRes for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday newspapers, meanwhile, put the Tories on 39 per cent, Labour on 32 per cent and the Lib Dems on 16 per cent.

ICM interviewed 1001 adults in the 96 marginal seats by telephone on April 7 and 8, and for the national poll, interviewed 1032 adults on April 7.

YouGov questioned 1431 voters online on April 9 and 10, while ComRes interviewed 1001 adults by telephone on April 9 and 10.