Latest poll (ICM/Guardian): Labour majority of 20 seats (uniform swing)
It’s just one poll, but the latest monthly ICM/Guardian survey will cheer the Lib Dems up this morning. It puts Nick Clegg’s party up 3 points to 18 per cent, their highest rating in any survey since September.
ICM has persistently shown higher Liberal Democrat ratings than other pollsters, although it’s notable that the Lib Dems’ share of the vote has also increased in recent YouGov surveys.
At one point it looked as if Chris Huhne’s prediction that support for his party would fall to 5 per cent would come true (a YouGov poll published on 7 January put the Lib Dems on just 7 per cent) but six of the last eight YouGov polls have put them on 10 per cent and today’s has them on 11 per cent.
New Statesman Poll of Polls
Labour majority of 76 (uniform swing)
To be sure, this remains a disastrously low poll rating: a drop of 14 points since the election and of 24 points since “Cleggmania”. But it’s still worth asking the question: is the worst over for the Lib Dems? Some of the anger over tuition fees has dissipated and, as payments are made retrospectively, the party won’t necessarily suffer when fees of £9,000 arrive in 2012.
It’s also possible that some Lib Dems have returned to the fold as the anti-cuts backlash has begun to reduce Conservative support. As I noted last week, the Tories’ “human shields” are no longer protecting them from public discontent.
It remains safe to assume that the Lib Dems will lose both votes and seats at the next election: the fees bill was Clegg’s Iraq moment, a profound breach of trust for which the party will pay dearly. But for the first time in months, Lib Dem supporters have some grounds for optimism.
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