Ipsos's March voting intention findings, carried out face-to-face between 9-15 March amongst 1,983 British adults aged 18+, show the Conservative Party eight points ahead of Labour amongst those who say they are absolutely certain to vote.
Ipsos's first Political Monitor of 2007 shows the Conservatives leading Labour by 4 points (39% vs 35%). This puts the Tory share significantly higher than it was during most of the Autumn, and represents a swing of 3.5% from Labour since the 2005 general election.
More of the public are satisfied with the way Gordon Brown is doing his job as Chancellor of the Exchequer than are satisfied with the performance of any of the three party leaders. However, Gordon Brown's personal ratings are the lowest recorded by Ipsos since 1997 with the exception of the fuel crisis in late 2000.
Ipsos's November Political Monitor latest voting intentions (based on all those who say they are certain to vote) gives the Conservatives 35%, Labour 33% and the Liberal Democrats 20%, a swing of 2.5% from Labour to Conservatives since General Election.
Ipsos's October Political Monitor shows that Labour retains a small voting intentions lead over the Conservatives among the 56% of the electorate who say they are absolutely certain to vote. Tony Blair has also seen a rise in the proportion of the public satisfied with his performance as Prime Minister, up from 26% in early September to 32% now, though a majority of the public remain dissatisfied (60%) with him. The proportion of the public satisfied with David Cameron as Conservative party leader stands at 31%, exactly the same as first measured by Ipsos in January of this year. However the proportion dissatisfied with Cameron has almost doubled over this time, from 17% to 32%. More than a third (37%) say they don't know if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with Cameron.
Satisfaction with the performance of Tony Blair as prime minister has hit new lows over the past two months, the latest Ipsos poll has found. The prime minister's performance rating is now barely a third of what it was immediately following his landslide election in 1997.
The two key findings from this month's Political Monitor survey provide grim reading for both the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition — Tony Blair's personal satisfaction ratings have fallen to the lowest levels of his premiership and, for the first time, more of the public is dissatisfied than satisfied with the performance of David Cameron.
