The Liberal Democrats are quietly gaining a heap of support as everyone focuses on the Tories

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The Liberal Democrats are quietly gaining a heap of support as everyone focuses on the Tories

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Reuters / Peter Nicholls

LONDON — The Liberal Democrats are quietly amassing support for their anti-Brexit policies, according to four polls released on Sunday.

While much of the attention is on a potential landslide Conservative victory, the Lib Dems have leapfrogged UKIP after leader Tim Farron pledged to halt a "disastrous hard Brexit."

Four polls, published in the Sunday newspapers, showed the Lib Dems are on course to secure 11% or more of votes, with gains of between one and four percentage points.

While the signs are positive for the party, it is unlikely to get anywhere near the 57 seats it won in 2010, let alone the 62 seats it secured in 2005.

The Lib Dems were wiped out during the last general election. The party's vote share was 7.9% in 2015, when it only secured eight seats in Parliament.

But there are other promising signs for Farron. The Lib Dems raised £500,000 in the space of 48 hours last week, according to the BBC — more than twice as much as Labour. The party also gained 1,000 members within an hour of the election being called on Tuesday.

Here are Sunday's polls in full:

Opinium/Observer

Comres/Sunday Mirror

YouGov/Sunday Times

Survation/Mail on Sunday

The early polling supports Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to call a snap general election. Indeed, the YouGov poll for the Sunday Times showed that voters back her decision to call the election by a margin of 48% to 26%.

The Comres poll puts Tory support at 50% — its highest point since 1991 when John Major was prime minister.

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See Also:

• Jeremy Corbyn rules out forming an electoral pact with the Greens and Lib Dems
• A growing number of Labour MPs are planning to quit ahead of the June general election
• Snap general election confirmed for June 8th after MPs overwhelmingly back new vote

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April 22, 2017 at 09:33PM