Just a few days before the United Kingdom general election on 9 April 1992 all the polls showed that the Labour party under Neil Kinnock was going to win, the Conservative party under John Major would come second and the recently formed Liberal Democrats under Paddy Ashdown would be a distant third.

The poll of polls showed Labour at 40%, Conservatives at 37% and Liberal Democrats at 19%. According to the BBC, this would have meant Labour would be 8 short of an overall majority in the House of Commons with 318 seats, Conservatives would have 290 seats, Liberal Democrats 19 seats and the other parties 24 seats.

In reality, John Major's Conservatives won with 41.9% of the vote, with Labour at 34.4% and the Liberal Democrats at 17.8%. The Conservatives ended up with an overall majority in the House of Commons of 21, with 336 seats, Labour had 271 seats, Liberal Democrats had 20 seats and the other parties had 24 seats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_UK_...