DAVID Cameron has received a poll boost with a snapshot showing that, in 10 Tory-held seats being targeted by Ukip, Nigel Farage's party is trailing in third place behind Labour.
The Comres snapshot over last weekend involved more than 1000 adults living in the 10 key Conservative-held UKIP target seats of: South Thanet, which Mr Farage hopes to win; Boston and Skegness; Thurrock; Forest of Dean; Great Yarmouth; North Thanet; East Worthing and Shoreham; Sittingbourne and Sheppey; South Basildon and East Thurrock as well as Castle Point.
While UKIP has made significant headway since the last General Election, increasing its vote share across these seats by 14.7 points, it is not yet, according to the poll, the main challenger to the Tories across any of these constituencies.
Overall, the survey showed: the Tories were on 39 per cent, down 7.3 points since 2010; Labour was on 28, up 1.7 points; Ukip on 21, up 15.4; the Liberal Democrats on five, down 10.2 and the Greens on four, up 3.6.
Comres noted how the Lib Dem collapse had bolstered both the Conservative and Labour votes and was one of the key reasons for UKIP's failure to jump to first or second place.
Some 25 per cent of 2010 Lib Dem voters said they would now vote Labour while 21 per cent said they would now vote Conservative; only eight per cent said they would now vote Ukip.
More analysis showed that older voters were much more likely to vote for Mr Farage and his colleagues than younger voters; 25 per cent over the over 55s compared to just eight per cent of the under 34s.
The snapshot revealed that the main reason people said they would vote for Ukip was its position on immigration with 58 per cent of those intending to vote UKIP citing this as a reason.
The perceptions that the party "tells it like it is" was chosen by 45 per cent of its supporters in these seats while 34 per cent said they would vote Ukip because they wanted to Britain to leave the European Union.
While there was widespread agreement, 73 per cent, that Mr Farage's party offered something different from the main political parties, voters in the 10 Essex and Kent seats were divided on whether they spoke common sense - 48 per cent thought they did - while 29 per cent regarded Ukip as racist.
Also, voters in these seats expressed a strong preference, 54 per cent, for David Cameron as Prime Minister over Ed Miliband, 32 per cent. Just 18 per cent of voters in these seats said Mr Farage would make a good Prime Minister, including more than half - 53 per cent - of Ukip voters.
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