18 Aug 2008

National still leading Labour in latest poll

8:16 pm on 18 August 2008

The National Party maintains a strong lead over the Labour Party in the latest One News Colmar Brunton poll released on Sunday.

National is on 51% support, down one since July, and Labour is up two, to 37%.

Two months ago in the same poll, Labour trailed National by 26 percentage points. It pulled back support in July and has continued to do so again this month.

But with the election less than three months away, National still has a substantial lead in public opinion.

Support for the Green Party has dropped below the 5% threshold, from 6% last month, to 3.5% now.

No other party registered more than 5% in this poll, with the Green Party slipping to 3.5% support.

The Maori Party registered 3.1% and New Zealand First 2.6%.

About 1000 people were surveyed for the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.

A Fairfax Media-Neilson poll on Saturday put National on 54% and Labour on 35%.