CON 39%
LAB 30%
LD 22%

What does this say about the Labour recovery?

Harris which used to be one of the big names in British polling hasn’t done much on the political front in recent years although it made an appearance with an eve of poll survey in May 2005 which was one of the closest.

According to UKPR at the last election it had the Tories bang on at 33%, Labour overstated by 2 at 38% with the Lib Dems on 22% just short of the 22.7% national share that they ended up with.

Since then polls have appeared since then from time to time the last occasion being for the Metro in June 2009.

Well this morning the firm has another survey in the same paper with the figures shown above. Like YouGov and Angus Reid they poll online but I’ve not seen any of their datasets and cannot comment on their methodological approach. No doubt that will be available during the day.

This latest poll involved a sample of 900 with polling taking place from February 16 to 22nd – which is quite an extended period. Because there are no recent comparisons it’s hard to talk about trends or the Labour recovery running out of steam. But this will bring a bit of cheer to Cameron Towers which must have felt a bit beleaguered by the poor polling news.

No doubt we will be seeing more of their polls in the coming weeks. You can read the Metro story on their “e-edition” here but you do have to register. It’s on page 17.

Harris is a member of the British Polling Council.

The next five days I’m on holiday and won’t be involved in the site very much. The spam box might take longer to clear but a series of articles is being lined up.

Mike Smithson