KEY POINTS:
Labour has closed the gap on National to 11 points in the new TV3 political opinion poll, the latest in a series of surveys indicating a tightening race.
The TV3/TNS poll had Labour up 2 percentage points to 37 and National steady on 48. National's 11-point lead over Labour is down from a 15-point margin in the same poll in May.
Prime Minister Helen Clark told the Herald last night that the trend coming through in polling was positive, but there was still a lot of work for her party to do.
"There'll be a spring in Labour's step with the results we're seeing."
This morning on TV3's Sunrise programme she predicted the gap would close further as the election neared.
"I think it's going to come down to who do you trust the future of your family and country with, the people who have been trustworthy or the ones that people don't really know too much about," she said.
The poll had New Zealand First support down one point to 3 per cent and the Greens down one point to 6 per cent. Act was up one point to 2 per cent, United Future was on 1 per cent and the Maori Party on 2 per cent.
As an election-night result, National would have 60 MPs, Labour 46, the Greens seven, the Maori Party four, Act three, United Future one and Jim Anderton's Progressives one - based on sitting MPs in minor parties retaining their seats.
As preferred prime minister, Helen Clark was up three points to 31 per cent and National leader John Key up two points to 34. The poll of 1000 voters has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent.
