Cameron’s winning over floating voters

DAVID Cameron is narrowly winning the battle for floating voters, according to a major poll out today.

The ComRes survey of 4,000 undecided voters found a slim majority have been more impressed with the performance of the Prime Minister than that of Ed Miliband during the Election campaign.

A separate poll of marginal seats by the former Tory treasurer Lord Ashcroft suggests that Ukip’s vote is being squeezed in key constituencies as election day approaches. It also suggests Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is set to hold her marginal seat in Loughborough.

Today’s ComRes survey, for ITV’s Good Morning Britain show, found that 37 per cent of floating voters have been impressed with Mr Cameron’s performance on the campaign trail so far, compared with 31 per cent who think Mr Miliband has done well. Nigel Farage was just behind on 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, has impressed 21 per cent of voters on the back of her strong performance in last week’s televised leaders’ debate.

Mr Cameron also suffered less badly from negative appraisals. While 49 per cent said they were ‘unimpressed’ with the Prime Minister’s performance, 54 per cent said the same of Mr Miliband.

But the poll also shows that politicians have yet to shift many of the undecided voters whose support is likely to be critical in next month’s election.

Just 12 per cent of the group said they had made up their minds since they were last polled in March. Another 48 per cent said they had a ‘good idea’ who they would back, while 16 per cent said they were ‘starting to lean towards a certain party’. Almost a quarter (24 per cent) said they were ‘completely undecided who to vote for’.

Floating voters identified the NHS as the most important issue, followed by immigration, the cost of living and the economy.

Meanwhile, Lord Ashcroft’s survey of Labour-Tory marginals suggests Mr Cameron still has a lot of work to do just to hold on to the seats he won in 2010.

Of ten Tory-held marginal constituencies, Labour is ahead in four seats, with the parties tied in another.

Lord Ashcroft said the study showed Ukip’s vote was being squeezed since the same seats were polled last year.

‘The Ukip share had fallen significantly – by up to 10 points – in nine of the ten seats polled,’ he said.

The decline in Ukip support has helped the Tories consolidate their grip in Blackpool North, Pendle, Gloucester, Kingswood and Mrs Morgan’s Leicestershire constituency. The Education Secretary, whose 3,744 majority is the smallest in the Cabinet, is now nine points ahead of the Labour challenger.

But Labour also appears to be benefiting from the squeeze in Ukip support in some areas, moving ahead of the Tories in Harrow East and increasing its lead in the Toryheld seats of Hove, Stockton South, and Morecambe and Lunesdale.

In Pudsey, West Yorkshire, Labour and the Conservatives were tied with 40 per cent each. Nigel Farage said he was not concerned about the Ashcroft polls, saying: ‘In areas where the two big parties are firing heavy artillery and we are not, it is perhaps not entirely surprising.’