Labour soars in poll as by-election looms

Labour has opened up an eight point opinion poll lead in the latest Comres poll for the Independent tonight.

With the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election just two days away Labour is on 42% in a nationwide survey, a stonking eight points clear of the Tories who have sunk to 34% support.

Figures like that would see the Ed Miliband on course for a 102 seat majority in the House of Commons (titter ye not).

Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems, who are expecting to get a pasting in the marginal by-election they would usually expect to win, are languishing on 12%, according to Comres. Other parties, a term that includes the SNP, are on 12% (The extrapolated Scottish samples are invariably too small to be scientifically accurate though that never stops the parties from punting them around if they look to be their advantage).

The poll is Labour’s biggest lead and the Tories’ lowest share of the vote in any survey since the May general election and the biggest Labour lead over the Tories that Comres has measured since 2006.

Voters are cooling on the idea of coalition government, according to the poll. Only 32% agreed that Britain was better of with a coalition government and 58% thought the country was worse off.

But Labour has not won back trust on the economy and Ed Miliband has more to prove as a leader. A minority, 36%, thought Labour could handle the economy better than the coalition, and the same number, 36%, thought that Ed Miliband was a good leader of the Labour party.