The campaign for the UK to leave the European Union has taken a 4-5 per centage point lead ahead of a June 23rd referendum, according to online polls by ICM and YouGov, sending sterling towards three-week lows against the US dollar.
The ICM poll of 1,741 people taken between June 3rd to 5th showed 48 per cent would vote to leave, up from 47 per cent a week earlier, while 43 per cent would opt to stay, down 1 percentage point from a week earlier.
The YouGov poll of 3,495 people taken between June 1st to 3rd showed 45 per cent would opt to leave the EU, up from 40 per cent in a comparable poll a month earlier,while 41 per cent would opt to stay, down from 42 per cent.
The poll showed 11 per cent of voters were still undecided, down 2 per centage points from a month earlier.
Of the eight most recently published surveys, one opinion poll was tied, two showed Remain ahead, and five have showed Leave in the lead, including a TNS online poll published on Monday, and two previous ICM polls published last Tuesday.
“There has been a couple of polls in a row all showing movement towards Leave - I suppose there might be finally some movement in the race,” Anthony Wells, director of political research at YouGov, said by telephone.
“ICM’s weekly tracker and indeed at least two other polls published in the last 24 hours, suggest a move to Leave might have occurred,” Martin Boon, director of research at ICM Unlimited, said in a statement.
Sterling fell below $1.44. The pound fell 0.9 percent to $1.4371, having traded at $1.4441 before the latest ICM poll was published. It had hit a three-week low of $1.4352 in early Asian trade.
Wells said the so called “Purdah” period which has prevented civil servants from making interventions in the referendum campaign since May 27th, may have given Leave campaigners such as Boris Johnson the space to push their arguments on immigration.
“The assumption is that immigration has sort of cut through from the Leave campaign,” Mr Wells said. “My best guess is that Purdah has allowed Leave to get into the argument and dominate when previously Remain had been dominating and pushing the argument onto the economy.”
Immigration dominated last week's campaign after official figures showed net migration into Britain running at its second highest level, despite pledges by prime minister David Cameron to bring the numbers down.
A TNS online poll of 1,213 people on May 19th to 23rd showed 43 per cent would vote to leave, 41 per cent would vote to stay and 16 per cent were undecided.
The TNS poll was adjusted for turnout, a change that turned a 3-per centage point lead for Remain, into a 2 per centage point lead for Leave.
“Leave supporters are currently more likely to actually turnout on the day which will be critical in determining the outcome,” Luke Taylor, head of social and political attitudes at TNS UK, said by email.
“This poll reinforces our view that it is all to play for over the next two and a half weeks and that the campaign which best manages to galvanise their support and get them to turnout in high numbers will win,” Taylor said.
Reuters