Four new polls – Labour ahead in three. But people now less likely to consider party “united”

The latest polls are out, and Labour are ahead in all but one.

Ashcroft’s weekly poll shows no change from last week’s – with the Conservatives on 30%, one point ahead of Labour. However, Ashcroft also notes that the proportion of people who said they thought Labour was a “united party” has dropped by 8 points, to 27%, since June. This is not particularly surprising following the rumours around Miliband’s leadership in recent days, although now that so many have come out to publicly back him, the party will be looking to make up ground in this area. What’s also interesting is that the Tories aren’t doing much better in this respect – only 30% think they’re a united party, down by 4 points.

The three other polls from ICM, Populus and YouGov make slightly better reading for the Labour leadership. ICM and YouGov both have them one point in front of the Tories, while Populus put them two points up.

However, compared to the ICM poll from last month, Labour have fallen by three points, and while the Tories haven’t moved, the Green have picked up two points from last month. Yet, a drop in Labour’s poll ratings don’t show across the board. The YouGov poll shows Labour up by one point, having previously been level with the Tories (both were on 33% respectively), and Populus also show Labour up by one point from their last poll.

This all suggests that it is still incredibly close between the two main parties. However, it is also worth noting that in all four polls, Ukip come in at 3rd place. Although on average 15 points behind both the Tories and Labour, the anti-EU, anti-immigration party does threaten to chip further away at both the Labour and the Tory vote.

The results reads as follows:

Ashcroft: Conservatives 30%, Labour 29%,Ukip 16%, Liberal Democrat 10%, Green 7%

ICM: Conservatives 31% Labour 32%, Ukip 14%, Liberal Democrat 11%, Green 6%

Populus: Conservatives 34% Labour 36%,Ukip 13% Liberal Democrat 8%  Green 3%

YouGov: Conservatives 32%, Labour 33%,Ukip 17%, Liberal Democrats 6%,  Green 6%

This isn’t the kind of polling we would be hoping for only 6 months away from a general election, but with Labour still ahead in three of the four polls – the election result is still up for grabs.