London, November 28: The UK Conservatives are taking a commanding lead in the key seats they must gain to form a majority at the looming general election, a newspaper survey said on Saturday.
A YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph put the Conservatives on 39 percent, Labour on 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 19 percent.
If those figures were translated uniformly into seats in the Commons, the Conservatives would fall just short of a majority, which stands at 326 seats.
However, in 32 key northern marginal seats currently held by Labour, the Conservatives lead by 42 percent to 36 percent — enough for all of them to fall into Tory hands.
The Conservatives need to hold all their seats and gain 117 more for a majority at the next general election, due by June.
“A minority government, or the cobbling together of a coalition, would be a wretched result,” The Daily Telegraph said in its editorial.
“When marginal voters were reminded that their seat could decide the election, the Tory lead rose from six to eight points.
“Many people assume their votes do not count — but, told that they can help change the government, they seize the opportunity with alacrity.”
Meanwhile, the new leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party said the party had offered not to stand against the Conservatives at the general election if they pledged to hold a referendum on the EU’s new Lisbon Treaty.
Lord Malcolm Pearson told The Times: “We made that offer but we didn’t get an answer… I’m so angry with them now.”
The Conservatives’ Europe spokesman Mark Francois said: “We don’t make policy on the basis of secret deals with other parties; we decide our policies on the basis of what is right for the country.
“As we have said, a made-up referendum after ratification would be pointless.”
–Agencies