Unless the weekend polling produces a shock 2013 will be the first year since 2002 that the Tories didn’t record a lead in any opinion poll
The Tories have yet to record a lead in any opinion poll this year. The last year this happened was 2002.
— Simon (@simonk133) December 19, 2013
I saw this Tweet earlier and thought I’d check it out. It is correct. At some point in every single year from 2003 to 2012 the Tories recorded at least one lead.
On two occasions they’ve been level-pegging and this week they got within 2%.
What this means electorally we’ll have to wait and see. It is worth noting that even in the worst days for the Thatcher and Major governments the party recorded leads in 1991, 1995 and 1990 which were at the same stage before the following general elections.