Best start to an election year from the Liberal Democrats

Analysis of opinion polls from January shows the Liberal Democrats scoring more highly than in any January of an election year since political polling began. Looking at all published polls, the party's average poll rating (21.6%) in January 2005 was around eight points above the average Lib Dem rating in January 2001 (13.7%) and nine points above the party's average in January 1997 (12.4%). By contrast Labour are down from an average of 50.6% in 1997 and 48.7% in 2001 to just 37.1% and the Tories score an average of just 32.1%, exactly the same as in January 2001.

People are fed up with Tony Blair's tired, complacent Government. Labour have broken too many promises and lost people's trust. Michael Howard's Conservatives are still not winning any converts. Nobody seriously thinks the Tories stand a chance at the election, they're not even an effective opposition let alone a credible alternative government. The majority of people in Britain now see Charles Kennedy's Liberal Democrats as the real opposition. That is why the Liberal Democrats are the party with momentum as we head towards the general election. The Liberal Democrats are on course to gain votes and seats from both Labour and the Conservatives at the election.

Here in Epping Forest the Liberal Democrats were only a few thousand votes behind the Conservatives at the last local elections. The labour vote collapsed and they did not win one council seat.