The Conservatives' lead over Labour has been reduced to single figures, a new Guardian/ICM poll shows today, increasing the pressure on Gordon Brown to call an early general election.While the nine-point lead for the Tories would probably still give David Cameron a narrow Commons majority, it will reinforce the view in both major party leaders' camps that the Tories can still be deprived of victory. This is the first Guardian/ICM poll - indeed the first by ICM for any newspaper - since December 2008 to give the Tories less than a double-digit lead.After 12 months of unbroken Conservative dominance in the polls, today's figures - showing the Tories on 40%, down two, Labour on 31%, up two, and the Liberal Democrats on 18% - are likely to increase calls for Brown to go to the country on 25 March next year, rather than the 6 May polling day that most at Westminster have been expecting.
The Conservatives' lead over Labour has been reduced to single figures, a new Guardian/ICM poll shows today, increasing the pressure on Gordon Brown to call an early general election.
While the nine-point lead for the Tories would probably still give David Cameron a narrow Commons majority, it will reinforce the view in both major party leaders' camps that the Tories can still be deprived of victory. This is the first Guardian/ICM poll - indeed the first by ICM for any newspaper - since December 2008 to give the Tories less than a double-digit lead.
After 12 months of unbroken Conservative dominance in the polls, today's figures - showing the Tories on 40%, down two, Labour on 31%, up two, and the Liberal Democrats on 18% - are likely to increase calls for Brown to go to the country on 25 March next year, rather than the 6 May polling day that most at Westminster have been expecting.
