British Conservatives hold 18-point poll lead: Survation poll

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives have slightly extended their large lead over the opposition Labour Party as the state-run health service takes over from Brexit as the nation’s top concern, a poll said on Monday.

The Conservatives were on 48 percent, up one point from a similar survey a week before, with Labour unchanged on 30 percent, the Survation poll for the Good Morning Britain TV show found.

The Liberal Democrats were on 8 percent, up one point, with the UK Independence Party unchanged on 4 percent.

The poll of 1,016 people, carried out on May 12-13, found the National Health Service was now the most important issue for voters overtaking Brexit, followed by the economy, immigration and education.

The prime minister called the snap vote in a bid to increase her parliamentary majority ahead of Britain’s complex talks to leave the EU. May was confronted by an angry voter over welfare cuts as she made a rare public walkabout ahead of the election.

The woman, who gave her name as Cathy, said she had learning difficulties and challenged the premier over changes to state handouts for disabled people. “I cannot live on £100 ($129) a month,” she said. May, who has been accused of avoiding the public in the campaign for the June 8 vote, tried repeatedly to answer Cathy but was interrupted.

“The fat cats keep the money and us lot get nothing,” Cathy said in the Oxfordshire market town of Abingdon, west of London.

May responded by saying that “we have got a lot of plans” and the goal was to ensure welfare payments are “focused on those who are most in need.”

Some shoppers stopped to shake the prime minister’s hand during the 11-minute visit, and she posed for pictures.

One man told her to “keep it up”, while May was also told she was the “best of a bad bunch”, to which she responded: “I’ll take that as flattering.”