Tories lead Labour, but barely

The last polls ahead of Britain's May 7 elections reveal that a kingdom united by the birth of the latest royal baby could soon find itself divided several ways. An Opinium poll for The Observer gives the ruling Tories 35 percent to Labour's 34 percent, but a ComRes poll for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday newspapers gives each party 33 percent.

Using YouGov, the Sunday Times gave Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives 34 percent, Labour 33 percent, the UK Independence Party 13 percent, the Liberal Democrats 8 percent and the Greens 5 percent. The Scottish National Party could win every seat in Scotland, the poll found.

Cameron and his counterparts in Labour and the Liberal Democrats, respectively Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, answered tough questions from voters Thursday. The prime minister has turned up the passion in the dying days of what many have called a lackluster campaign, but he risks having left it too late to convince voters.

The YouGov opinion poll suggests that Cameron's right-wing Conservatives may not have done enough to stay in power on May 7, potentially putting him out of a job at the age of 48. Cameron does not plan to remain prime minister past 2020.

'It's a Tory?'

In 2010, Cameron and the Liberal Democrats - who campaigned on abolishing university fees, siphoning center-left votes and ousting Labour - formed Britain's first coalition since World War II. The government tripled university fees and raided the National Health Service. Still, the Tories receive endorsements from neoliberal publications such as the Financial Times, which called Labour "preoccupied with inequality."

On its front page Thursday, The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling paper, put "It's a Tory" as its headline above an image of Cameron swaddled in a blanket - a riff on the new royal baby. "It's the Tories," the tabloid endorsed on its cover. "The Tories who rebuilt the economy wrecked by Labour - and transformed lives. The Tories who alone are committed to an EU referendum."

Cameron would put EU membership before voters, part of the Tories' strategy as they guard their right flank from the populist euroskeptic UK Independence Party, which has also attacked the Conservatives on immigration. Some experts have predicted, however, that UKIP might only win three to five seats, making the party's electoral mark mainly about shifting the debate to the right.

mkg/bk (Reuters, AFP, AP)