News / Politics

UK Conservatives hold 21 point lead over Labour in new poll

Monday, 24 April 2017 4:36 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 24 April 2017 4:39 PM ]

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May gives a short speech and holds a Q&A session at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Maidenhead, south east England, April 21, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives are holding a commanding lead over the Labour Party ahead of the June election, a new poll shows.

According to an ICM opinion poll for the Guardian newspaper released on Monday, 48 percent of voters said they would vote for the Conservative Party, while support for Labour stood at 27 percent -- both parties are up two percentage points from a poll last Tuesday.

In a surprise move on April 18, May called a snap election to be held in June in order to bolster her position before going into two years of negotiations with the European Union about Britain’s departure from the bloc.

The Liberal Democrats were on 10 percent with the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party (UKIP) on 7 percent, both down a percentage point.

The survey was conducted between April 21 and 24 of 2,024 possible voters.

According to the poll, the Conservative lead is enough to win a majority that could be over 100 seats, but Prime Minister May said on Friday she was not complacent.

Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (C) leaves his home in London on April 19, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

"The election campaign has only just begun. I'm not taking anything for granted. The result is not certain," she said in a speech at a GlaxoSmithKline factory in her constituency of Maidenhead.

The election will be held on June 8, nearly a year after 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the European Union. The current Parliament will dissolve on June 3.

May said an early election will bolster the UK’s position in the talks over Brexit and is in the country’s national interest. Despite this, she had repeatedly said in the past that she would not seek a new election before 2020.

Influential figures like former Prime Minister Tony Blair argue that May made the call because she knew the Labour Party is in a disadvantaged situation.

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