British voters 'expecting hung parliament'

More British voters are now expecting a hung parliament than think the Conservatives will win an overall majority in the General Election on May 6, according to a poll.

The Populus survey for The Times put the Conservatives on 39% (down one point on a similar poll two months ago), Labour on 32% (up two) and Liberal Democrats on 21% (up one).

The poll, taken entirely after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the election date on Tuesday, was broadly in line with other recent surveys, which suggest that the Conservatives advantage over Labour has improved slightly over the last few weeks but remains below the level at which David Cameron could be assured of an overall majority.

According to The Times, today's poll would leave the Conservatives with 30 more MPs than Labour but 25 seats short of a clear majority in the Commons.

Just 31% of those questioned said they expected an overall Conservative majority - down from 43% in February and 55% a year ago.

For the first time, more people said they were expecting a hung parliament - 39%, compared to 33% two months ago and 19% last year.

More than a third of voters (35%) said they thought Labour would be the largest single party after the election, compared with 52% for the Conservatives.

Populus interviewed 1,507 British adults by phone on April 6 and 7.

Meanwhile, the daily YouGov poll for The Sun put the Conservatives on 37% (down three points since yesterday), Labour on 32% (unchanged) and Liberal Democrats on 19% (up two).