By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor
Like most people I am fairly dubious of polls these days, however according to an ICM poll for the Guardian Labour has drawn level with the Conservative Party.
The poll put Labour on 36% up a huge four points, leaving them tied with the conservatives down 3 points since December’s results. It is the first time labour has match the Tories since Corbyn came to power.
UKIP are unchanged on 11%, the Lib Dems up one point on 8% and the Greens are down one on 3%.
The results will be a great tonic for Corbyn who has become under increasing pressure from within his own party. It may steady the ship as the party heads into May’s Welsh, London, Scottish and local elections.
Deputy leader Tom Watson recently called for calm in the Labour ranks amid speculation a leadership challenge is possible in the near future, with Dan Jarvis emerging as a possible rival.
However, Watson told MPs that party supporters are unlikely to want to see a challenge to Corbyn after he won the party leadership vote with a colossal 59 pe cent of the vote, only nine months ago.
Watson remarked: “The fundamentals are both Jeremy and I were elected last September on a very large mandate from our membership, they decided who the leader and deputy leader are and they do not want after nine months another leadership challenge.
“I hope that those MPs on all sides of this argument will pay heed to that.”
ICM said the fall in Tory support could be down to Tory infighting over Europe
“We have an unprecedented level of division within the Conservative Party over the EU, a battle which is very much being fought front and centre with the current Prime Minister on one side and a Prime Ministerial hopeful on the other.
“Under such circumstances, polling support tends to suffer – there’s nothing worse than party disunity to prompt a polling freefall.”
Pollsters have admitted the survey could be “rogue” and said that Conservative support was rounded down from 36.4% and Labour’s 35.6% had been rounded up.
