The Guardian/ICM poll showed support for David Cameron’s Conservatives rose one point from last month to 44 percent. Labour’s support also rose one point to 27 percent.

Britain’s second largest opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, fell one point to 18 percent. The Conservatives have consistently polled well ahead of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour this year, with a parliamentary election due by June 2010.

The recent party conferences, in which politicians set out ideas for taking Britain into a sustainable recovery and reduce ballooning government borrowing, appear to have done little to change voting intentions.

Brown, who took over as prime minister from Tony Blair in 2007, has pinned his hopes of a political recovery on an economic one - banking on a return to growth and an end to rising unemployment in time to win back middle ground support.

The Conservatives have concentrated on selling change to voters after 12 years of Labour rule and say they would take swifter and tougher action to reduce borrowing by cutting back the public sector.

Nearly half of those polled said Cameron and his economics policy chief George Osborne were better equipped to manage the recession-hit economy.

That compares with 31 percent for Brown - who was finance minister for a decade before becoming prime minister - and the man who took over his job at the Treasury, Alistair Darling.