UK PM May's lead cut two weeks before election: poll

[LONDON] Britain's opposition Labour Party has cut the lead of Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives to five points less than a fortnight before a national election, according to the first poll published since a suicide bombing killed 22 people.

In a sign that the election could be more closely contested than has previously been thought, YouGov said on Thursday Ms May's party was on 43 per cent, down 1 percentage point compared to a week ago, while Labour was up 3 points on 38 per cent.

The previous YouGov poll had given Ms May a lead of nine points.

Britain suspended political campaigning for the June 8 election after the attack on Monday night in Manchester.

Polls had put Ms May's Conservatives on course for a big victory after she called the snap election in April but her lead slipped in the days before the attack when she was forced to backtrack on a key proposal for reforming social care.

YouGov's Anthony Wells said Ms May and her party had been hurt by the fallout from the manifesto launch but said it was hard to determine the impact of the bombing on the election campaign.

When looking at Ms May's personal favourability ratings, the poll showed Ms May's ratings rising by 1 point in recent days, while support for the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn fell by 8 points.

"It has been a highly unusual few days in an election campaign, arguably unlike any other in history," Mr Wells said.

The poll of 2,052 people, which was conducted for the Times newspaper, was conducted on Ms May 24-25.

REUTERS