New ICM Poll – Tories Surge to a 5% Lead in a Second Major Poll

There is a new ICM poll in the Guardian tomorrow showing the Conservatives surging to a lead of 5% over Labour:

         Conservative              40% (up 3%)

                                                  Labour                       35% (down 1%)

                                                  Lib Dem                      16% (up 1%)

This confirms yesterday’s YouGov poll which also had the Conservatives 5% ahead of Labour. With the last two YouGov polls showing 3% and 5% leads respectively and now ICM (the pollster of choice for many who follow opinion polls) showing a 5% lead it is reasonable to conclude that this is a realistic reflection of public opinion at this time. For Labour to be substantially behind the Coalition Government at this time is a damning indictment of Ed Miliband and the senior Labour leadership.

ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1003 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 20-22 January 2012.

UPDATE: Tonight there is also a Populus poll for tomorrow’s Times which finds: Cons 37 (+2), Lab 38 (-1), 13 (+1)