The big polling news is that Lord Ashcroft has announced that starting this week he’ll be doing a weekly phone poll right through until the general election. He’ll also be doing regular battleground surveys.

This is a great development because so much of current polling is online and phone surveys have now been reduced to just three a month – ComRes, ICM and Ipsos-MORI.

They are a lot more costly but, as we saw in 2010 and at he AV referendum in 2011 are more accurate.

Lord Ashcroft plays a huge part in providing the numbers to help us understand what’s is going on.

CON close gap to 1% again with Populus online CON 35+3 LAB 36= LD 8= Ukip -3

— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) May 12, 2014

UPDATE

@LordAshcroft's first phone poll is out and sees The Tories ahead Con 34, Lab 32, LD 9 UKIP 15 http://t.co/nl0bMLtQff

— The Screaming Eagles (@TSEofPB) May 12, 2014