Britain's Conservatives extend lead over Labor: poll

LONDON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Britain's opposition Conservatives have extended their lead over Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labor Party with 17 percentage points, according to a poll published on Sunday.

The Sunday Times published the opinion poll by the YouGov, an international Internet-based market research firm in Britain, that the Tories had an approval rating of 42 percent against Labor with 25 percent and the Liberal Democrats with 18 percent.

The poll of nearly 2,000 people suggested that the economic gloom and criticisms of the government over the war in Afghanistan are taking their toll on Labor Party.

The British people remain worried about unemployment as the Office for National Statistics reported last week that the unemployment rate in Britain has hit 7.6 percent, the highest since January 1997.