Now Lib Dems draw level with Ukip as Farage support stalls

UKIP has failed to outpoll the Lib Dems for the first time since 2003 in a fresh blow to Nigel Farage’s faltering election campaign.

An exclusive ComRes survey for the Daily Mail and ITV News shows the Lib Dems are up three points to 12 per cent, equal with Ukip.

The poll is the latest bad news for Mr Farage, and undermines his claim yesterday that support for Ukip has ‘rallied’ after a lacklustre few weeks.

‘Since the debates last week there is a very clear firming of the polls on Ukip,’ Mr Farage insisted.

The poll will also ease Tory jitters, showing the party on 34 per cent and Labour on 33 per cent. While the Tory lead has slipped slightly since the start of the campaign, it will be relieved to be ahead after other pollsters suggested Labour had taken a lead in recent days. Labour has yet to be top in any ComRes telephone poll this year, reflecting what the pollster called ‘a small, but existent lead for the Conservatives’.

The poll also gives the Tories a commanding lead on key economic issues. Voters are more likely to trust the Conservatives than Labour most to keep the economy growing, by 46 per cent to 28 per cent, and make the right level of cuts to government spending, by 38 per cent to 32 per cent.

Even a significant number Labour voters trust the Tories most to secure growth (15 per cent) and make the right level of cuts (10 per cent).

Following the ‘non-dom’ tax row, the public is evenly split in its trust of both main parties in setting the right levels of tax for everyone, with each backed by 36 per cent.

Voters have mixed views on the role of the rampant SNP if it holds the balance of power in a hung parliament – Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she is prepared to prop up an Ed Miliband gov- ernment even if Labour wins fewer seats. Half of all voters (50 per cent) say the SNP should be allowed to try to form a government with whichever party it chooses. But 32 per cent insist it should try to form a government with the party with the most MPs.

Last night there were claims the polls across the UK had ‘turned’ for Ed Miliband after a TNS poll for The Guardian had Labour on 33 per cent, three points ahead of the Tories; a poll by Survation put Labour four points ahead; and a third had the party six points in the lead.

But the claim was undermined by the ComRes poll for the Mail, and YouGov for The Sun, both putting the Tories in the lead.