The London election polling test finds that LAB was overstated by 4 points in the final polls
What does this say about current national polling?
It is not often we get a real election against which we can compare final polls and this month’s London elections provided one such opportunity.
The LAB/CON/LD shares in the final polls from YouGov and Survation are shown in the chart and compared with the overall result.
As can be seen both pollsters had LAB at 51% which compared the 47% that actually happened. Survation got the Tories spot on while YouGov understated the party by 2 points.
Both pollsters understated the LDs – YouGov by 2 points and Survation by a point.
London Borough councillors are elected by block voting. This means that voters could cast as many votes as there were seats in their wards. In most cases this meant three. The vote totals in the chart totals reflect the total number of votes cast for that party in London on May 3rd.
It will be recalled that Survation did best at GE2017 last June.