Four polls show that neither Conservatives nor Labour are pulling ahead

Another week, another set of polls that put Labour and the Tories on an almost level footing. In his weekly national poll, Lord Ashcroft has the Conservatives two points ahead on 31 per cent — down three points from last week — while Labour are on 29 per cent. Today’s Guardian/ICM poll also has the Conservatives slightly ahead, by one point, while Labour has jumped three points to 35 per cent. But the latest The Sun/YouGov’s poll tonight shows the opposite: this poll has Labour two points ahead of the Tories, who are down to 32 per cent. Another poll from Populus yesterday put the two main parties on 34 per cent each.

Two weeks to go until the election campaign properly begins and there is still no clear frontrunner. Last Monday’s polls suggested that the Tories might be pulling ahead — with four point leads from YouGov and Lord Ashcroft, just putting the Conservatives’ lead beyond the margin of error.