Popularity of Tories grows poll says

Press, 17 February 1983, Page 9

Popularity of Tories grows poll says

NZPA London Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party yesterday forged further ahead of the Opposition in a popularity poll as her Government cleared the way for a possible early General Election. A public opinion poll published by London’s “Standard” newspaper showed the governing Conservatives with a 13 per cent lead over the Labour Party.

The “Standard” estimated that that would translate into a landslide majority of at least 140 seats for Mrs Thatcher in an election.

The poll showed support for the Conservatives edging up from 44 to 45 per cent in the last month, while the Labour Party slipped from 35 to 32 per cent.

The alliance of Liberals and Social Democrats, which sought to stake out the middle ground and shot to the top of the polls at the end of 1981, was back in third place with 21 per cent. The Conservatives’ high standing is unprecedented for a British Government in the fourth year of office and has confounded critics who felt that record unemployment, now at 13.8 per cent of the work-force, would diminish its popularity. The “Standard” suggested that many British electors felt there was no alternative to Mrs Thatcher.

Her personal popularity dipped slightly, 39 per cent of people polled saying that they were satisfied with her performance compared with 41 per cent a month ago.

But the Labour leader, Michael Foot, already low in the personal ratings, slipped

even further with only 19 per cent satisfied with the job he was doing. The encouraging poll news for the Conservatives comes as some senior party figures press Mrs Thatcher to call an election in June, rather than wait for the end of her five-year term in May, 1984. They fear that inflation, which had just fallen below 5 per cent for the first time in 13 years, will soon rise again. The Government signalled that it wanted to keep its options open for an early election by pushing ahead with proposals in Parliament for changes in electoral boundaries.

Political pundits said that the revised boundaries, drawn up by an independent commission but bitterly opposed by Labour, would give the Conservatives an extra 30 seats at the next election.