MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Prime Minister announced general election will be held on Thursday 5 May.

Tony Blair on Tuesday announced the UK election would take place on May 5, signaling the end of the ?phoney war' and the start of official campaigning ahead of what is set to be the closest election since 1992.

The prime minister met the Queen to request parliament be dissolved on April 11, firing the starting gun on a month-long campaign. Later, from the steps of Number 10 Downing Street Mr Blair told reporters he had a "driving mission for a third term in office" as he outlined the key issues on which he would fight the election. Putting the economy and public services at the heart of Labour's campaign he said he would "take hard-won economic stability, the investment in our public services and entrench it to make it last for the future and never return to the economic risks and the failing public services of the past."

In an inauspicious start to Labour's campaign, an opinion poll for the Financial Times on Tuesday showed the reinvigorated Conservatives for the first time building a clear lead over Labour among Britons who say they are certain to vote.

The poll by MORI shows the Tories have a 5 point lead over Labour among people who say they will definitely vote in 30 days' time.

The survey of those who describe themselves as "absolutely certain" to vote puts Michael Howard's party on 39 per cent, Labour on 34 per cent, and Charles Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats on 21 per cent.

The Conservatives' five-point lead is a sharp improvement on MORI's poll on March 24 when the two main parties were neck and neck on 37 points each.

The survey, conducted at the weekend, shows that 55 per cent of the electorate say they will definitely go to the ballot box. If this result were replicated on Election Day, MORI says it would result in a hung parliament, with Labour as the biggest party in the Commons having 27 seats more than the Conservatives.

In a bid to steal a march on Labour, Michael Howard launched the Conservatives' election campaign before Mr Blair had even left Downing Street. Flanked by his wife Sandra and dozens of supporters outside a London hotel Mr Howard said the Tories offered an alternative to the "smirking politics of Mr Blair or the woolly thinking of the Liberal Democrats".

The Liberal Democrats, on course for their best election performance in decades, were boosted on Tuesday when Labour party candidate Stephen Wilkinson switched to the Liberal Democrats, saying he had become disillusioned with Labour over the Iraq war.