Tory support drops - again

10.51.52am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 2nd May 2006

Support for the Conservatives has dropped for the third month in a row. The news comes in an analysis of all the opinion polls on voting intention published during April. The monthly average is down on March's figure, which in turn was down on February's, which in turn was down on January's.

Liberal Democrat Chief Executive Chris Rennard says "David Cameron's party stumbled badly in its first major election test in the Dunfermline by-election, when they finished fourth whilst the Lib Dems took the seat from Labour.

"Whilst support for the Tories has been dropping every month this year, it has been rising for the Liberal Democrats every month. It's the Lib Dems who are the real alternative to Labour."

Note:

The figures are from a "poll of polls" calculated by averaging the results in all published opinion polls with figures for general election voting intention. The Conservative ratings are:

38.1 January

36.8 February

35.6 March

34.1 April