By KUNA,
London : Labours parliamentary by-election campaign in Crewe and Nantwich, northern England, received a fresh blow Tuesday with a new survey of local voters predicting the party would lose the seat to the main opposition conservatives.
The “ComRes” poll for The Independent newspaper put the conservatives on 48 percent, 13 points ahead and on course for a 14 percent swing and its first by-election gain for 25 years.
It also contained more bad news for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with his own party supporters shown to consider him less of an electoral asset there than David Cameron, the leader of the conservatives.
Labour enjoyed a 7,780 majority in the Crewe and Nantwich constituency at the last General Election, but the death of veteran MP Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody opened the way for a close-faught battle.
The latest polls suggest the conservatives are far enough ahead to ensure the late MP’s daughter Tamsin does not succeed her mother in the House of Commons.
The survey in The Independent put the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats on 12 percent and other parties on five percent.
It found 60 percent of voters in the constituency believed the under-fire Prime Minister was an electoral liability and just 13 percent thought his leadership helped the party’s cause.
Meanwhile, a separate poll in the Guardian newspaper today put labour support down seven percent on only 27 percent, 14 percent behind the conservatives and the lowest score for the party since May 1987.
The conservatives had gained two points since last month’s Guardian-ICM poll, to 41 percent, and the liberal democrats were up three points, to 22 percent.
The survey also found three-quarters (75 percent) of those who voted labour in 2005 now believe Tony Blair was a better Prime Minister than Brown.
The by-election in Crewe and Nantwich takes place this Thursday, May 22.