Support for Conservatives shrinks

Conservative Party leader David Cameron in Brighton, February 28, 2010.

LONDON (Reuters) - Support for the Conservative Party has dwindled to its lowest level in two years as a parliamentary election draws nearer, an opinion poll published on Wednesday said.

An Ipsos-MORI poll in the Daily Mirror showed the Conservative's lead, which peaked at 28 points in September 2008, has fallen to just five percentage points ahead of an election widely expected on May 6.

Allegations that three former Labour cabinet ministers claimed they could use their positions to influence government policy for cash appear not to have tarnished the party's ratings.

The survey, published on the same day that Chancellor Alistair Darling unveils the budget, put the Conservatives on 35 percent, Labour on 30 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 21 percent.

If the projections were repeated uniformly across the country at the election, Labour would be the largest party in a 650-seat parliament but would be short of votes for a workable majority, according to a poll predictor on the Sky News website.

Such a result could hand the balance of power to the third placed LibDems. The party has refused to agree any deals with the two main parties before the election.

But in a move seen as an effort to lure the LibDems into an alliance, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain told the Independent on Tuesday that Labour was considering the possibility of introducing a four-year parliamentary term.

A daily YouGov poll for the Sun put the Conservatives four points ahead of the Labour government with 37 percent of the vote, while support for Labour was on 33 percent and the LibDems had 18 percent.

Labour needs a smaller percentage of the national vote than the Conservatives to win an overall parliamentary majority because its vote is concentrated in urban constituencies, which tend to have smaller electorates than rural areas.

As a result it would be possible for the Conservatives to win a greater share of the national vote but still win fewer seats than Labour.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Angus MacSwan)