Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats, won a surge of support yesterday after their leader was lauded as the winner of the first-ever pre-election TV debate between the main contenders.
Nick Clegg emerged ahead of both Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron in opinion polls after the US-style televised clash late Thursday, watched by nearly 10 million people.
Mr Clegg's performance pushed support for his centrist party up to 24 per cent, an increase of three percentage points from two days ago, according to an ITV/ComRes survey of 4,000 people yesterday.
The poll, weighted to reflect voting intentions across the country, put the Tories in first place on 35 per cent, with Labour second on 28 per cent - both down slightly on their average support in recent polls.
Although Mr Clegg has little chance of becoming Britain's next Prime Minister, the Liberal Democrats could hold the balance of power if Britain has a hung parliament after May 6, as polls suggest is possible.
The leaders faced off in Manchester, northwest England, during a 90-minute debate on domestic policy to be followed by two more on foreign policy and the economy.
Standing stiffly behind podiums, the leaders appeared nervous as the debate got under way - but it quickly descended into political scrapping.
Mr Clegg, a 43-year-old former European lawmaker who speaks five languages, distanced himself from the two biggest parties and sought to offer an alternative to voters.
"Don't let them tell you that the only choice is between two old parties who have been playing pass-the-parcel with your government for 65 years," he said.
Labour and the Conservatives have alternated power in Britain since 1922, with the exception of occasional coalition governments.
But on Thursday night at least, Mr Clegg appeared to have made the biggest impact in instant polls on the leaders' personal performances. One put him as much as 22 percentage points ahead of Mr Cameron in second place.
The ITV/ComRes figures which came out yesterday were released shortly after ITV published results suggesting the Lib Dems had improved their showing by a staggering 14 points to reach 35 per cent.
But those figures were based on interviews with people who watched the TV debate and were not demographically weighted. They put the Lib Dems one point behind the Conservatives and ahead of Labour on 24 per cent.