Small Business Support For Liberal Democrats Is Highest Ever

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 7th Nov 2003

An Office World Report released today revealed that Liberal Democrat support in the small business community is the highest ever with over 1 in 5 small businesses stating that they would vote Liberal Democrat if there was an election tomorrow.

One of the greatest swings has been in Greater London, where the number of small businesses choosing to vote Liberal Democrat has almost tripled.

Commenting on the report, Brian Cotter MP, the Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Small Business said, "With confidence in Labour at an all time low, and the Tories in disarray it is hardly surprising that small businesses are putting their support behind the Liberal Democrats."

"With Labour coming third in the poll and expectations on turnover down it is clear that small business no longer trust the Government to deliver."

"Small businesses are a vital part of economy and the Government cannot afford to ignore them or lose their vote."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Brian Cotter was responding to the Office World Quarterly Small Business Survey released today.

The report stated that 22% of small business owners would vote Lib Dem in a general election tomorrow. This is up from 14% in the last survey and is the highest level of support for the Lib Dems ever recorded by the survey.

In Greater London support for the Lib Dems has risen from 9.3% to 26.5%.

Labour has dropped 5 percentage points from last quarter, pushing them into third place with only 11.7% of small business owners choosing to vote for them.