Yair Lapid Views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict What were some of the views? Lapid said that he would demand a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Was this view well received? I don't know. What else did he have to say? His party's platform calls for an outline of "two states for two peoples", while maintaining the large Israeli settlement blocks and ensuring the safety of Israel. What other views did he hold? He said, "We're not looking for a happy marriage with the Palestinians, but for a divorce agreement we can live with."
How did he do in the polls with those views?
How did Yair Lapid do in the polls with his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Lapid said that he would demand a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. His party's platform calls for an outline of "two states for two peoples", while maintaining the large Israeli settlement blocks and ensuring the safety of Israel. In January 2013, just days before the election, Lapid said he won't join a cabinet that stalls peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, and added that the idea of a single country for both Israelis and Palestinians without a peace agreement would endanger the Jewish character of Israel. He said, "We're not looking for a happy marriage with the Palestinians, but for a divorce agreement we can live with."  As part of a future peace agreement, Lapid said that the Palestinians would have to recognize that the large West Bank settlement blocs of Ariel, Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim would remain within the State of Israel. According to Lapid, only granting Palestinians their own state could end the conflict and Jews and Arabs should live apart in two states, while Jerusalem should remain undivided under Israeli rule. Regarding the diplomatic stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Lapid said that "Most of the blame belongs to the Palestinian side, and I am not sure that they as a people are ready to make peace with us." He has, however, dismissed as unrealistic the possibility of a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians. In June 2015, after the March 2015 elections, Yair Lapid visited the United States and after an hour long interview, American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that, "Lapid is a leader of the great mass of disillusioned centrists in Israeli politics. He could conceivably be prime minister one day, assuming Benjamin Netanyahu, in whose previous cabinet he served, ever stops being prime minister. Now functioning as a kind of shadow foreign minister, Lapid argues that Israel must seize the diplomatic initiative with the Palestinians if it is to continue existing as a Jewish-majority democracy, and he is proposing a regional summit somewhat along the lines of the earlier Arab Peace Initiative. Lapid is not a left-winger--he has a particular sort of contempt for the Israeli left, born of the belief that leftists don't recognize the nature of the region in which they live. But he is also for territorial compromise as a political and moral necessity, and he sees Netanyahu leading Israel inexorably toward the abyss." In September 2015 Yair Lapid laid out his diplomatic vision in a major speech at Bar Ilan University  in which he said "Israel's strategic goal needs to be a regional agreement that will lead to full and normal relations with the Arab world and the creation of a demilitarized independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That's where Israel needs to head. Separation from the Palestinians with strict security measures will save the Jewish character of the state." CANNOTANSWER
CANNOTANSWER
Yair Lapid (, Transliterated: , ; born 5 November 1963) is an Israeli politician and former journalist serving as the Alternate Prime Minister of Israel and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2021. Lapid also serves as the chairman of the Yesh Atid, having previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2021 and as Minister of Finance from 2013 to 2014.

Before entering politics in 2012, Lapid was an author, TV presenter and news anchor. The centrist Yesh Atid party, which he founded, became the second-largest party in the Knesset by winning 19 seats in its first legislative election in 2013. The greater-than-anticipated results contributed to Lapid's reputation as a leading centrist.

From 2013 to 2014, following his coalition agreement with Likud, Lapid served as Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2013, Lapid ranked first on the list of the "Most Influential Jews in the World" by The Jerusalem Post. He was also recognized in 2013 as one of the leading Foreign Policy Global Thinkers, and ranked as one of Time magazine's 100 "Most Influential People in the World". He serves on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and the Sub-Committee on Intelligence and the Security Services. 

On 17 May 2020, Lapid became the Leader of the Opposition, after the thirty-fifth government of Israel was sworn in. On 5 May 2021, he began talks with other parties to try to form a coalition government. On 2 June 2021, Lapid informed Israeli President Reuven Rivlin that he had agreed to a rotation government with Naftali Bennett and was prepared to replace the incumbent prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The new government was sworn in on 13 June 2021.

Personal life and background 

Lapid was born in Tel Aviv, the son of journalist and politician Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, who also served as Justice Minister, and novelist and playwright Shulamit (Giladi) Lapid. His father was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) to Hungarian-Jewish parents, and his maternal grandfather was an Ashkenazi Jew from Transylvania, Romania. He has a sister, Merav, who is a clinical psychologist. Another sister, Michal, died in a car accident in 1984. Both of his grandmothers were alive when his parents moved to Israel. His great-grandmother Hermione Lampel was arrested in Serbia and sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered in a gas chamber.

Lapid grew up in Tel Aviv and London. His childhood home in Tel Aviv was in the Yad Eliyahu neighborhood, in a residential building known as the Journalists' Residence, as several prominent journalists lived there. He attended high school at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, but struggled with learning disabilities and dropped out without earning a bagrut certificate. He began his mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces in the 500th Brigade of the Armored Corps. During the 1982 Lebanon War, Lapid suffered an asthma attack after inhaling dust kicked up by a helicopter, and was pulled from the Corps. He then served as a military correspondent for the IDF's weekly newspaper, Bamahane ("In the base camp"). After completing his military service, he began working as a reporter for Maariv and published poetry in literary journals. He also had a career as an amateur boxer.

In the mid-1980s, Lapid married Tamar Friedman. They later divorced, and he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in the television industry. He later returned to Israel, where he resumed his journalism career.

He is married to journalist Lihi Lapid, and lives in the Ramat Aviv Gimel neighborhood of Tel Aviv. He and his wife have two children, and he has another son, Yoav (born 1987), from his first marriage. He attends the Daniels Centers for Progressive Judaism, a Reform synagogue in Tel Aviv.

Journalism and media career 

In 1988, at age 25, Lapid was appointed editor of Yedioth Tel Aviv, a local newspaper published by the Yedioth Ahronoth group. In 1991, he began writing a weekly column in a nationwide newspaper's weekend supplement—first for Maariv, and later for its competitor, Yedioth Ahronoth. His column's name, "Where's the Money?", became his political slogan decades later.

In 1994, Lapid started on TV, hosting the leading Friday evening talk show on Israel TV's Channel 1. That same year, he had an acting role in an Israeli film, Trip to Sudan. He next hosted a talk show on TV Channel 3. From 1999 to 2012, Lapid hosted a current affairs talk show on Channel 2.

From 1989 to 2010, Lapid wrote and published several books, spanning a variety of genres. His first was a thriller, of which he has published three more; the others include two children's books, two novels, and a collection of his newspaper columns. In addition, he wrote a drama series, War Room, that aired on Channel 2 in 2004.

In January 2008, Lapid was the host of Ulpan Shishi (Friday Studio), Channel 2's Friday night news magazine. That year, the Cameri Theater performed his first play, The Right Age for Love.

In January 2012, controversy arose after Lapid was admitted by Bar-Ilan University into a doctorate program, studying towards a PhD in hermeneutics. This was in violation of rules stating that all doctoral candidates must hold at minimum a bachelor's degree. Lapid, who had failed to complete high school, was admitted to the university based on his extra-academic credentials and career in journalism and writing. After the Knesset Education Committee launched an investigation, the Council for Higher Education canceled the program under which Lapid was admitted, which had allowed students without a BA to study towards a doctorate. 

In September 2013, the Israeli edition of Forbes magazine estimated Lapid's net worth at 22 million shekels.

Political career 

On 8 January 2012 Lapid announced that he would be leaving journalism in order to enter politics. On 30 April he formally registered his party, "Yesh Atid" (, lit., "There's a Future"). The move was timed to coincide with the general expectation in Israel for early elections to be held in the early fall of 2012. 

A few days after Yesh Atid's registration, in a surprise move, Benjamin Netanyahu formed a national unity government. It was then thought that Lapid's party would have to wait until late 2013 before it could participate in national elections. But in October 2012, following the departure of Kadima from Netanyahu's coalition over how to implement a Supreme Court decision ending the exemption from the military draft for the ultra-Orthodox, Netanyahu announced that elections would take place in late January 2013, affording Yesh Atid its first opportunity to run. In November 2012, Yesh Atid was polling an average of 11.6%, or 13–14 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The results of the January election showed the party winning an unexpected 19 seats, making Yesh Atid the second-largest party in the 19th Knesset.

Lapid was named Israel's finance minister on 15 March 2013. Only nine months later, a survey was published showing a continuing trend of decreasing popularity, with 75% of those polled claiming to be disappointed by his performance, and his party achieved only 10 seats in the Knesset, as opposed to the 19 it got at the beginning of the year.

On 2 December 2014, Netanyahu fired Lapid as finance minister.

Yesh Atid
In 2016, Lapid presented his platform, the "Seven Point Plan for Israel", which includes a robust security doctrine, a regional conference with Arab states based on the necessity of separating from the Palestinians, reforms of the political system to clean up corruption, the State of Israel that strikes a balance between its Jewish and democratic character, a strengthened law enforcement system, an economy propelled forward by innovation, and increased emphasis on education and science.

Under Lapid, Yesh Atid claims to spearhead the fight against corruption in Israel. The "Nachshon Plan", unveiled in 2017, stipulates that any person found guilty of corruption will be banned from serving in public office. To prevent political bribery, it also abolishes "coalition funds".'Mandate to form a government

On 5 May 2021, Lapid was entrusted with the second mandate to form a new government, after the incumbent Netanyahu failed to do so with the first mandate.  On 9 May 2021, it was reported that Lapid and Bennett had made major headway in the coalition talks. However, on 10 May, coalition talks seemed to be jeopardized as the Ra’am party announced it was suspending coalition talks, due to escalation in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.  On 13 May his path to being Prime Minister was further complicated when Naftali Bennett reportedly decided against joining a Lapid government due to the ongoing military conflict with Gaza.  On 30 May 2021, Bennett announced in a televised address that Yamina would indeed join a unity government with Lapid after all but one Yamina MK agreed to back this decision. On 2 June 2021, following negotiations with Lapid and Bennett, Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas officially signed a coalition agreement with Lapid and agreed to allow his party to join.

Views and opinions
Lapid has said that he would demand a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. His party's 2013 platform calls for an outline of "two states for two peoples", while maintaining the large Israeli settlement blocs, a united Jerusalem, and ensuring Israel's safety. In January 2013, just days before the election, Lapid said he would not join a cabinet that stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, and added that a single country for both Israelis and Palestinians without a peace agreement would endanger Israel's Jewish character. He said, "We're not looking for a happy marriage with the Palestinians, but for a divorce agreement we can live with." As part of a future peace agreement, Lapid said Palestinians would have to recognize that the large West Bank settlement blocs of Ariel, Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim would remain within the State of Israel. According to Lapid, only granting Palestinians their own state could end the conflict and Jews and Arabs should live apart in two states, while Jerusalem should remain undivided under Israeli rule. He is enthusiastic about annexing the Golan Heights, and has also declared that he is guided by a principle of "maximum Jews on maximum land with maximum security and with minimum Palestinians."

Of the diplomatic stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Lapid said, "Most of the blame belongs to the Palestinian side, and I am not sure that they as a people are ready to make peace with us." He has also dismissed the possibility of a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians as unrealistic.

In June 2015, after the March 2015 elections, Lapid visited the United States, and after an hour-long interview, American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote, "Lapid is a leader of the great mass of disillusioned centrists in Israeli politics. He could conceivably be prime minister one day, assuming Benjamin Netanyahu, in whose previous cabinet he served, ever stops being prime minister. Now functioning as a kind of shadow foreign minister, Lapid argues that Israel must seize the diplomatic initiative with the Palestinians if it is to continue existing as a Jewish-majority democracy, and he is proposing a regional summit somewhat along the lines of the earlier Arab Peace Initiative. Lapid is not a left-winger—he has a particular sort of contempt for the Israeli left, born of the belief that leftists do not recognize the nature of the region in which they live. But he is also for territorial compromise as a political and moral necessity, and he sees Netanyahu leading Israel inexorably toward the abyss."

In September 2015, Lapid laid out his diplomatic vision in a major speech at Bar Ilan University in which he said, "Israel's strategic goal needs to be a regional agreement that will lead to full and normal relations with the Arab world and the creation of a demilitarized independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That's where Israel needs to head. Separation from the Palestinians with strict security measures will save the Jewish character of the state."

Lapid supports recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He noted in 2017 that with Iran attempting to establish a foothold in Syria, Israel cannot be expected to relinquish the Golan Heights.

Religion and state
In 2013, when Yesh Atid sat in the government, Lapid pushed for increased public transportation on Shabbat, as opposed to the current law that mandates most public transportation shut down.

Additionally, Lapid strongly supports instituting a civil marriage track in Israel. Currently, marriage and divorce for Jews are controlled by the Chief Rabbinate. The Chief Rabbinate will not officiate marriages between Jews and non-Jews, and some Israelis from the Soviet Union—who are not Jewish according to Jewish law—cannot marry in Israel. Although Israel recognizes civil marriages that are performed abroad, there is no mechanism for performing civil marriage in Israel. In 2015, under Lapid's leadership, Yesh Atid championed a bill to institute civil marriage, but the bill was defeated in the Knesset, with 50 votes against and 39 in favor.

Israel-diaspora relations
When Netanyahu walked back his promise to Diaspora Jews in 2017 to expand prayer at the Western Wall, Lapid slammed the decision, saying that the Israeli government alienated "senators, congressmen, the majority of the pro-Israel lobby, major donors, the people we turn to when we need help ensuring that Israel will get advanced weapons, that the military assistance will increase, that there will be sanctions on Iran". He implored American Jews to "not give up on us. We have no intention of giving up on you. We are one people. It might take time. It might take elections. But in a democracy, the majority decides, and the majority in Israel want us to be one nation." Lapid asserts that it is Israel's responsibility to recognize all streams of Judaism, including streams which don't follow Orthodox Jewish Law.

Lapid is a leading proponent of a deep bipartisan US-Israel relationship. He has upbraided Netanyahu for alienating American Democrats: "The fact that the [Israeli] government completely identifies with the conservative, evangelical faction of the Republican party is dangerous."

When Jewish Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch's request to attend the embassy opening in Jerusalem was ignored, Lapid said, "There's no way the government of Israel didn't notice this. It's the job of the Prime Minister's office to look at the list and say: We are nonpartisan and are not just attached to Republicans."

Haredim
During the 2013 election campaign, Lapid spoke of "equal shares of the burden" for all Israeli citizens. He said he would work to see all Israeli citizens, including the thousands of Haredim, who had up until that point been exempt from most civil service, be included in military and civil service. On 27 May 2013, Lapid threatened to topple the government unless ultra-Orthodox would be subject to criminal sanctions for draft-dodging. In the view of some Haredim, Lapid's plan represents a "spiritual holocaust", as they believe that their Jewish studies are what upholds Israel. Some Haredim have declared that even at the risk of being criminals, they will continue in their Jewish studies and refuse to enlist or perform civilian service. Lapid denied that he was seeking to destroy the Haredi way of life, saying: "Not one of us wishes, Heaven forbid, to force hiloniyut [secularism] on you or to impose our version of Israeli identity. This state was established so that Jews could be Jews, and live as Jews, without having to fear anyone."

Defending Israel against bias
Lapid is a vocal opponent of the BDS movement, which seeks to economically isolate Israel. He has said, "We can no longer abandon this battle to the haters of Israel. We need to defend Israel's good name in the world. They are besmirching us, and the time has come to answer them." Lapid has also helped college students in America oppose BDS.

Lapid has spoken out vehemently about alleged United Nations bias against Israel. In an op-ed, he excoriated the United Nations Human Rights Council for voting for "61 resolutions condemning human rights abuses across the world, and 67 resolutions which condemned Israel" in the past decade and having its own agenda item on Israel. Lapid blames UNESCO for "erasing Jewish history".

Lapid traces the UN's alleged bias against Israel to the creation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) in 1950, which services only Palestinian refugees and gives them hereditary status so that the number of refugees has expanded from approximately 750,000 to five million.

 Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance 
Lapid, whose father was a Holocaust survivor, spoke out against Poland's controversial Holocaust bill, which would criminalize accusing the Polish nation of being complicit in the Holocaust. Lapid said, "No Polish law will change history. Poland was complicit in the Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered on its soil without them having met any German officer", adding that his "grandmother was murdered in Poland by Germans and Poles". Lapid also wrote that there were "Polish death camps". The Auschwitz museum 
stated that Lapid's claims about alleged Polish cooperation in the Holocaust were a "conscious lie" and that Lapid was "using Holocaust as a political game" which mocked the victims, also likening his allegation to the claims made by Holocaust deniers.

In February 2018, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said "there were Jewish perpetrators" of the Holocaust, "not only German perpetrators". Lapid condemned Morawiecki's words: "The perpetrators are not the victims. The Jewish state will not allow the murdered to be blamed for their own murder."

Lapid's book Memories After My Death chronicles his father's life and observations as Israel evolved over its first sixty years.

Social media
Since the beginning of the 33rd Government, Lapid has written posts on Facebook that have been quite similar. There was a discrepancy between the posts and Yesh Atids work in the Knesset.

The Lapidomator Facebook status generator of a unique text was written by a team of Israeli programmers in July 2013. It has generated new Lapid statuses of every word, and Mako demonstrated three different statuses generated from the words "Lapidomator", "Yair Lapid", and "Bullshit".

Rosenstein, one of the Lapidomator programmers, said: "We have noticed that the Yesh Atid party spends a lot of time on Facebook, instead of engaging in parliamentary activities. Their posts do not say anything. They are full of beautiful text and very little substance. A bit like Yair Lapid. So we decided to shorten the waiting time for Yair Lapid's new posts and simply build a site which produces them itself."

The Lapidomator was covered widely in the media, and continued to be active after Lapid ceased to be Finance Minister. On 7 November 2018, MK Tamar Zandberg complained about the empty seats of Lapid and Ofer Shelah, who were absent during the vote on public transportation on Saturdays, and the Lapidomator generated an adequate status.

As of 10 November 2018, Lapidomator has generated 322,526 posts.

Published works

The Double Head: thriller (1989)
Yoav's Shadow: children's book (1992)
One-Man Play: novel (1993)
Elbi – A Knight's Story: children's book (1998)
The Sixth Riddle: thriller (2001)
Standing in a Row: collection of newspaper columns (2005)
The Second Woman: thriller (2006)
Sunset in Moscow: thriller (2007)
Memories After My Death: Biography (2010)
 A Journey to Our Future (2017)

Awards and recognition
In April 2013, Lapid appeared on Time magazine's list of "100 Most Influential People in the World 2013" in the category Leaders. The following month, he ranked first on the list of the "Most Influential Jews in the World" by The Jerusalem Post. He also was listed as one of the "Foreign Policy Global Thinkers 2013".

References

External links

 
 
 

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1963 births
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In the run up to the general election on 7 May 2015, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention. Results of such polls are displayed in this article. Most of the polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules.

The date range for these opinion polls is from 6 May 2010 (the date of the previous general election) to 7 May 2015.

Most opinion polls cover only Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). Separate polls covering constituent countries of the UK and English regions are reported further below while polling of individual constituencies and groups of them (such as groups of marginals) is covered in a separate article.

In the event, the actual results proved to be rather different from those indicated by the opinion polls. Opinion polls conducted in the last few months of the campaign, and even in the last few days, had indicated a very close result between the Conservatives and Labour in terms of numbers of votes, suggesting that one of the main parties would have to form a perhaps complex coalition with smaller parties in order to govern.

However the actual results showed a stronger performance by the Conservatives, which gave them an overall majority, since Labour also had a weaker performance than the polls had suggested. When the exit poll was initially presented, some commentators and politicians doubted it, with Paddy Ashdown even declaring "If this poll is correct I will publicly eat my hat on your programme" in response to the apparently poor results for the Liberal Democrats. The exit poll was eventually proved to have in fact overestimated the Liberal Democrats' performance. If the Survation telephone poll (6 May) had been published it would have produced results within 1% of the election results.

Graphical summary

The chart shows the relative state of the parties from 13 May 2010 to 7 May 2015, with each line's colour corresponding to a political party: red for the Labour Party, blue for the Conservative Party, purple for the UK Independence Party, yellow for the Liberal Democrats, and green for the combined Green Party of England and Wales and Scottish Green Party. While not shown here, other parties have on occasion polled higher than one or more of the parties represented, for example in the Lord Ashcroft poll conducted on 17–19 April 2015, where the Scottish National Party polled 6% and the Greens 4%. Each dot represents a party's results from an opinion poll displayed in the table below.

Poll results
Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. The 'party lead' column shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. In the instance of a tie, no figure is shaded but both are displayed in bold.

Throughout the 2010-2015 parliament, first and second places have without exception alternated between the Conservatives and Labour. The Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party have tended to hold either third or fourth place in each individual poll. The combined Green parties of England and Wales and Scotland have most frequently polled fifth and have on occasions polled fourth – level with or ahead of the UK Independence Party or the Liberal Democrats. Included in the 'others' column are other smaller parties, the largest of which (by votes at the 2010 general election) are the British National Party, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru. Detailed poll results that break down 'others' for some dates in 2014 and 2010 are available in a second table, below.

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

Sub-national polling 

Polling was conducted separately in the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, England had 533, Scotland had 59, Wales had 40 and Northern Ireland had 18.

Leadership approval polling

Methodology
Each polling organisation uses slightly different methodology in their collection of data; a brief description of each company's methods is as follows:
 Angus Reid Public Opinion collects its data through online internet surveys, and demographically weights its data to be representative of the whole population in terms of age, gender, social class, the region of the country lived in and newspaper readership. Past vote weighting is used, and is calculated separately for respondents from Scotland and respondents from England and Wales, whilst those saying they do not know how they will vote are asked which party they are leaning towards, and any responses to this are used as a full response, whilst those still unsure being discounted from the final calculation of levels of party support.
 BMG Research is a Birmingham-based social research company which carried out its first political poll from 25 to 27 April 2015 for PoliticsHome, May2015 and the Electoral Reform Society, with the voting intention questions being commissioned by May2015. BMG carries out its fieldwork online and weights for past vote and likelihood to vote with people who did not vote at the previous General Election weighted down by 50%. BMG Research is not a member of the British Polling Council but is applying for membership and abides by BPC rules in carrying out opinion polls. It is recognised by the BPC as a market researcher.
 ComRes uses both telephone interviews and online surveys to collect its data; all polls will be conducted using one method exclusively. It is not shown explicitly in the tables in this article whether a particular poll has been conducted by telephone or online but in general those polls with the smaller samples (~1,000) are telephone polls and those with the larger samples (~2,000) were conducted online. The data tables will confirm how the poll was conducted. Whatever the data collection method, all respondents are weighted according to gender, age, social class, household tenure, work status, number of cars owned and whether or not they have taken a foreign holiday in the previous three years. Both telephone and online polls are weighted according to past vote in the last general election, whilst telephone polls also use data from the last 12 ComRes telephone-conducted opinion polls. ComRes compensates for those respondents who says they do not know by asking them instead which party they most clearly identify with, whilst all respondents are weighted according to likelihood to vote on a scale of one to ten, with respondents saying their likelihood of voting is less than four being discounted entirely, and respondents saying their likelihood is more than five being progressively weighted, with a five-out-of-ten likelihood being weighted as half a response and a ten-out-of-ten likelihood being weighted as one whole response.
 ICM also collects its data through telephone interviews, and also demographically weights its respondents according to their gender, age, social class, household tenure, work status and the region of the country they live in. It weights respondents according to the levels of support a party received in the previous general election and the last 25 ICM opinion polls and, if a past vote is given, this is used to allocate a response to those who say they do not know how they will vote, although such a response is counted as only half of one whole response. ICM also weights its respondents as to how likely they say they are to vote, with respondents who say they are certain to vote given a higher weighting than those who are not as certain, while if a respondent did not vote at the previous general election, their turnout weighting is automatically reduced by half.
 Ipsos MORI collects its data through telephone interviews, and weights its respondents to be demographically representative of gender, age, social class, work status, work sector, household tenure and the region of the country they live in. Data is not weighted according to the way respondents voted at the previous general election, any respondents who say they do not know how they will vote are discounted, and only the responses of people who says they are certain to vote are included in the final calculation of levels of support for each party.
 Lord Ashcroft commissions and publishes polls as Lord Ashcroft Polls. On 12 May 2014 he published the first in a series of opinion polls to be published weekly up to the 2015 UK general election. These polls are carried out by telephone, and are past-vote weighted with an allowance for false recall. They are also weighted for likelihood to vote, with a proportion of Don't Knows reallocated to how respondents said they voted at the 2010 general election. The Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP are prompted for. Lord Ashcroft does not disclose the organisations which carry out his fieldwork, but states that a number are used. Initially, the methodology of the weekly Ashcroft National Poll was said to be similar to that used by Populus before they moved to polling online. He is not a BPC member; he was initially invited to join but the BPC now states that he is not eligible as he does not work for multiple clients.
 Opinium surveys are conducted online via web interviewing, drawing a sample of responses from the company's panel of around 30,000 people. This sample is representative of the adult population of Great Britain in the areas of age, gender, regional location, working status and social grade, as according to the latest Office for National Statistics data. Responses from different demographic groups are handled appropriately to compensate for differential response rates in these different groups.
 Populus conducts its surveys over the telephone, and weights all respondents according to gender, age, social class, household tenure, work status, the number of cars they own, and whether they have taken a foreign holiday in the past three years, to be representative of the whole electorate. Respondents are weighted according to their past vote and the levels of support for each party recorded in the previous 20 Populus opinion polls. Respondents who say they do not know how they will vote are allocated according to how they voted at the last general election, at a reduced weighting of 0.5 for previous Conservative or Labour voters and 0.3 for previous Liberal Democrat voters. All respondents are also weighted according to how likely they are to vote, with those certain to vote given the highest weighting.
 Survation opinion polling is achieved through online surveys, and all data is weighted to represent the wider population of Great Britain in terms of gender, age, socio-economic group, religion, how the respondent previously voted, and stated likelihood of voting in the next general election. Respondents who are either undecided or refuse to state how they would vote are excluded from the final results, unless they have provided details of how they have voted in the past, in which case, that information is used to adjust the results.
 TNS-BMRB interviews a representative sample of adults aged 18+. All interviews are conducted in respondents' homes, although the voting intention data is collected using self-completion methods. The data is weighted twice: firstly to match population totals for age, sex, social grade, working status, presence of children, 2010 voting patterns and region; and secondly, for voting intention questions only, an additional 'likelihood-to-vote' weight is applied.
 YouGov collects its data through an online survey, and weights its respondents to be representative of the population as a whole in terms of age, gender, social class, identification with a political party, region of the country and newspaper readership. Respondents are weighted according to how they voted in the previous general election in order to achieve a sample that is reflective of each party's level of support at that election, whilst those respondents who say they do not know who they will vote for are discounted from calculating levels of support for each party.

See also
 Sub-national opinion polling for the 2015 United Kingdom general election
 Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies (2010–15)
 Opinion polling for the 2017 United Kingdom general election
 2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom
 List of political parties in the United Kingdom
 List of United Kingdom by-elections (2010–present)
 Opinion polling for the 2010 United Kingdom general election

References and notes
Notes

P – The dates when the fieldwork for this poll was carried out are unknown; therefore, the date of publication has been given.

References

External links
 May2015 election polls and predictions
 2015 UK parliamentary election forecast
 UK Polling Report blog
 UK Polling Report 2015 election guide
 Ipsos MORI archive of all pollsters' polls

2015 United Kingdom general election
Opinion polling for United Kingdom general elections
Opinion polling for United Kingdom votes in the 2010s The Parish and Community Meetings (Polls) Rules 1987 (the 1987 Rules) is a British Statutory Instrument (SI) which lays down the rules on polls held as a consequence of parish and community meetings (consequent polls). It was made under powers granted by the Local Government Act 1972 and the Representation of the People Act 1983 and came into force on 16 February 1987. The rules revoked earlier SIs on the subject with the saving that consequent polls demanded before the rules came into were not covered by them. The rules extend to England and Wales.

Rule 4(1) stipulates that the chairman of any meeting where a consequent poll needs to be taken must inform the local district council of the fact that the consequent poll must be taken. That district council is then required to appoint an officer of the council to be returning officer for the consequent poll. Rule 5 stipulates that the Local Elections (Parishes and Communities) Rules 1986 are to be applied to consequent polls with a series of adaptations, alterations and exceptions to those rules so that the consequent poll is conducted in accordance with rules set out in the schedule to the 1987 Rules. Rule 6 then sets out how the Representation of the People Act 1983 is to apply to consequential polls again with a series of adaptations, alterations and exceptions.

Later in 1987 ambiguities were found in the 1987 Rules and the Parish and Community Meetings (Polls) (Amendment) Rules 1987 were made to correct those ambiguities. The Parish and Community Meetings (Polls) (Amendment) Rules 1987 made a series of amendments to the rules in the schedule to the 1987 Rules and also altered the appendix of forms of the schedule. Since then the only amendments were made by the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Amendments to Subordinate Legislation) Order 2005 which replaced references to husbands and wives in various parts of the 1987 Rules with references to spouses and civil partners.

External links
 Text on OPSI site

1987 in British law
Statutory Instruments of the United Kingdom