With Britain's economy robust and the government's fat lead in opinion polls, Blair opened the monthlong campaign warning his party against overconfidence. The main opposition Conservative Party, which has made no headway in opinion polls since Blair's 1997 landslide victory ended 18 consecutive years of Conservative rule, offered voters tax cuts and adamant opposition to joining the European single currency. The Gallup poll suggests the Conservatives are the feeblest opposition party in half a century, trailing Blair's Labor Party by an average of 23 percentage points in monthly polls since the last campaign. In contrast, Labor ran more or less even with the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher in the Gallup polls, although Thatcher won large majorities in Parliament in her re-election campaigns of 1983 and 1987. Facing such predictions, Blair has warned his party against complacency.
Conservative hopes hinge depend on motivating supporters stayed home four years ago.
However, half of the self-described Conservative voters in Gallup's April survey said the party wasn't ready to govern again. The Conservatives suffered their worst election in a century in 1997, polling 30.7 percent of the popular vote compared to Labor's 43.2 percent. Labor won 418 seats compared to 165 for the Tories, who didn't win a single seat in Scotland or Wales. Its major initiative in economic management was to give the Bank of England freedom to set interest rates, in line with government targets, instead of allowing elected politicians to juggle key rates. Blair, with help from his friend, former President Clinton, presided over a peace agreement in Northern Ireland that led to creation of regional government guaranteeing shares of power to Protestants and Roman Catholics.