Greens Now Main Threat To Big Three Parties

I blogged last Friday about the Times/Populus Poll showing the Greens as the fourth party nationally in Britain.

Further confirmation of this comes with a Guardian/ICM Poll published today that draws comment from the Guardian that the Greens are now the main threat nationally to the big three parties - scoring 3% of the poll, a larger share than UKIP on 1%. What is more, when voters for other parties were asked which party they might vote for if not their current choice the greens were the most popular choice outside the big three-

"Despite recent publicity about Conservative defections to Ukip, and fears inside the party that Mr Cameron's remodelling of Conservative policy could alienate traditional support on the right, only 14% of Tory supporters say they might back UKIP instead.

Asked to name one or more other parties that they might support, Conservatives are much more likely to choose the Liberal Democrats or the Greens: 32% of Tories say they might vote Lib Dem and 19% say Green.

The result appears to strengthen Mr Cameron's hand in arguing the Conservatives must embrace a radical environmental and social justice agenda.

Labour supporters are also more likely to switch to the Lib Dems (30%) or Greens (16%) than UKIP (9%)."

Encouraging news!