Support for Labour dips to new low

Support for the Labour party has dropped to an all-time low of just 22 per cent, according to a YouGov survey for the Sun which asked how people would vote in a general election.

The poll, details of which were published today, put the Conservatives on 41 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 19 per cent.

The voting intentions would be enough to give the main opposition party a landslide victory if repeated at a parliamentary election due by mid-2010.

The YouGov poll, which sampled the views of 1,814 adults, follows several days of embarrassing revelations over parliamentarians' expenses.

The results compare with a BPIX poll for the Mail Sunday which gave Labour 23 per cent support with the Conservatives on 45, and with an earlier YouGov poll for the Sunday Times which put Labour's support at 27 per cent, 16 points behind the Conservatives.

The YouGov poll for the Sun also shows Labour floundering ahead of elections next month for the European Parliament.

Asked how they would vote in the June 4 European elections, 29 per cent said Conservative, 20 per cent Labour and 19 per cent LibDem.

Yesterday, Labour suspended a senior MP while a top aide to Conservative leader David Cameron stepped down in the widening expenses scandal.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper has caused all three main parties embarrassment with daily revelations about how MPs have claimed for expenses such as cleaning swimming pools and moats, installing a chandelier and buying manure for the garden.