The average of the most recent 20 opinion polls put the Green Party on 5% of the vote for 2015 General Election, five times the vote share they secured in 2010. UKIP are also set to make big gains securing 12% more than they did in 2010. Thanks to the current electoral system though, neither are likely to gain more MPs.
The UK Polling Report polling average ‘takes in polls from the last 20 days and gives them weightings based on various factors, including how recently they were conducted, the past record of the pollster producing the figures, the methodology used, the sample size and how many polls have been produced by a single pollster.’
Although the average does not necessarily reflect a greater likelihood to accuracy, it does stop those with vested interests cherry picking the most favourable results to imply an unrealistic support one way or another.
Comparing them to the actual vote share from 2010 also gives a rough idea of how the party’s fortunes have fared over the last 4 years.
| 2010 result | Current polling average | +/- % | |
| Conservative | 36% | 32% | -4% |
| Labour | 29% | 35% | +6% |
| Lib Dem | 23% | 8% | -15% |
| UKIP | 3% | 15% | +12% |
| Green | 1% | 5% | +4% |
The clear winners are UKIP (although despite this jump in vote share they are still projected not to win any seats – time for electoral reform?) while the clear losers are the Lib Dems (although it is thought that Lib Dems will still hold 30-40 seats – time for electoral reform?).
Despite massively growing their vote share The Green Party is also unlikely to take any new seats but will probably hold Caroline Lucas’ Brighton Pavilion seat (although it is Labour’s number one target for the South East).
The Conservatives show a clear drop but nothing of the magnitude of their coalition partners. Labour, although showing a decent rise are being compared to the lows of the Brown years and are not polling high enough to consider winning a majority (another coalition on the cards?).
All in all regardless of millions of votes switching between Greens/UKIP/Lib Dems – the core 28-36% vote shares of Labour and the Conservative will ensure one of them will attempt to run this country without the backing of the vast majority of voters, let alone non-voters!
With this in mind I think the case for electoral reform has never been clearer.
Hynd's Blog 
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In May 2013 Steve Hynd allowed me to post details of ‘Every Vote Counts’, a proposal I have to reform/improve our current ‘First Past the Post’ electoral system. If anyone would like to read my article (https://stevehynd.com/2013/05/08/peter-lawrence-argues-every-vote-counts/), I would welcome any feedback.
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