Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/832512
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 4 JUNE 2017 News WITH just four days left before the second general election in two years, Labour is continuing to make ground on the Conserva- tives in the UK elections. After Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election despite repeatedly vowing that she'd do no such thing, it seemed at first like an assured triumph for the Tories –and possibly the coup de grâce for Jeremy Corbyn's divided and floundering Labour Party. But a new poll published yester- day suggests Labour could be on course for a shock win but only if all those considered least likely to vote turn out to cast their ballot on Thursday. An Ipsos Mori survey shows the Tories enjoying a five point lead but reveals a separate result for "all giving a voter intention", put- ting Labour on 43 and the Tories on 40. Other opinion polls during the past days have shown the Con- servatives' lead over Labour in terms of public support fall away, though the extent of the decline is sensitive to assumptions over how likely different age groups are to vote. The Ipsos Mori poll's overall re- sult is reached by stripping out the "don't knows" and those histori- cally unlikely to vote, who include black and ethnic minorities as well as the under 35s and the least well off older people. The IM poll is based on a "repre- sentative" sample of 1,046 adults asked about their voting inten- tions between 30 May and 1 June. However, the pollsters adjust- ed their figures for likelihood of turnout because of the 2015 general election polling debacle, where polls consistently showed the country was headed for a hung Parliament before the Tories won a majority. It was subsequently concluded that this happened because many younger and less affluent voters had said they intended to vote La- bour – but failed to turn out on the day. Voter turnout among the young has not always been so differ- ent from older generations as it is now. During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, young adults were only slightly less likely to vote than those in older age groups. But the last two decades have seen a dramatic decline in the number of younger people turn- ing out to have their say at the bal- lot box. Older voters are far more likely to vote Conservative and to ap- prove of Theresa May but Labour enjoys a wide lead among younger voters. Labour's manifesto has policies which appeal to many young vot- ers, such as a promise to scrap tui- tion fees and reintroduce mainte- nance grants and a pledge to build 100,000 council or housing homes a year and to introduce inflation caps on rent rises for those in the private rent sector. Embattled leader Jeremy Corbyn has consistently polled very well with younger voters – but very badly with those in his own age group of 65 and overs. But May has angered many of her core supporters with the manifes- to pledge to introduce a so-called "dementia tax" for social care costs as well as a pledge to means test pensioner perks such as the heating allowance and to remove the "triple lock" from pensions. Labour take shock lead over Tories in UK poll Jeremy Corbyn's Labour started the campaign with a 20-point disadvantage but the Tories' lead has all but been wiped out