Opinion polling for the 2001 United Kingdom general election

The previous general election was held on 1 May 1997, and had seen Labour return to power with a landslide victory after 18 years, led by Tony Blair.

The parliamentary term of 1997-2001 had seen the opinion polls led by the Labour Party, mostly with a lead in excess of 10 points, over the Conservatives (who had replaced John Major with William Hague as their new leader), apart from a brief spell in the autumn of 2000 when fuel protests threatened to bring Britain to a standstill.

Another rare success for the Conservatives during this parliamentary term came in June 1999, when it enjoyed the largest share of the votes in the European parliament elections, with William Hague vowing to keep the pound as Britain's currency, whereas Tony Blair was refusing to rule out eventually adopting the Euro.

In the event, the election produced a low turnout (with many voters perhaps feeling that another Labour victory was inevitable) and Labour won a second successive landslide, with the British political scene remaining almost completely unchanged with only a few seats changing hands.

[1][2][3] Two exit polls conducted by MORI for ITV and NOP for BBC was published at the end of voting at 10 pm, predicting the number of seats for each party.