LONDON (Reuters) - The Conservatives are firmly ahead of the Labour Party less than a week before local elections, according to an opinion poll released on Friday.
The YouGov survey in the Daily Telegraph will make uncomfortable reading for Chancellor Gordon Brown -- widely expected to take over from Prime Minister Tony Blair in the coming months -- as it pointed to Labour's worst local election performance in 20 years, according to the newspaper.
Local council elections are due to take place next Thursday. There will also be elections to the devolved Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly.
With political parties trying to woo voters, the YouGov poll put David Cameron's Conservatives ahead of Labour for the 12th consecutive month for the first time since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister in the late 1980s, the Telegraph said.
The Conservatives were on 37 percent -- a 2 percentage point slide from last month -- while Labour was unchanged at 32 percent. The smaller opposition Liberal Democrats came in at 18 percent, an increase of 1 percentage point from March.
Asked to decide whether they would prefer a Conservative government under Cameron or a Labour government under Brown, 45 percent said they would vote Conservative -- a 1 percentage point rise from March -- compared with 35 percent for Labour -- also a 1 percentage point rise. The percentage of those who were undecided fell to 18 percent from 22.
Blair is expected to announce soon after the May 3 election that he is stepping down in the next few months.
YouGov polled 2,019 adults between April 23 and 26.
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