The British Conservative Party is firmly ahead of the Labour Party less than a week before local elections, according to an opinion poll released today.
The YouGov survey in the Daily Telegraphpointed 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.
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 Telegraphsaid.
The Conservatives were on 37 per cent - a 2 percentage point slide from last month - while Labour was unchanged at 32 per cent. The smaller opposition Liberal Democrats came in at 18 per cent, an increase of 1 percentage point from March.
Asked to decide whether they would prefer a Conservative government under Mr Cameron or a Labour government under Mr Brown, 45 per cent said they would vote Conservative, a 1 percentage point rise from March, compared with 35 per cent for Labour - also a 1 percentage point rise.
The percentage of those who were undecided fell to 18 percent from 22.
Mr Blair is expected to announce soon after the May 3rd election that he is stepping down in the next few months.