Election 2015: Tories take two-point lead after George Osborne woos voters with budget

George Osborne's budget has catapulted the Tories into a two-point lead over Labour after falling behind Ed Miliband's party in the opinion polls.

The Chancellor won over voters with his pre-election package of financial measures, including a hike in the personal tax-free allowance threshold to £11,000 in 2017/18 and a 1p cut to a pint of beer as well as a 2% drop in excise duty on spirits and Scotch whisky.

YouGov, who questioned more than 2,000 voters between 18 and 19 March, found that the Tories had climbed to 35% in the polls, ahead of Labour's 33%.

The study, taken just weeks before the general election in May, also found that the Tories' right-wing rivals, Ukip, had fallen to 13% and the Liberal Democrats were stable at 8%.

The data comes ahead of Osborne's speech to the Federation of Small Business' (FSB) national conference at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Birmingham.

The event will give small firm owners the opportunity to hear from the chancellor, Miliband and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

The FSB said it will be the first time that its national conference will be addressed by all three major parties at senior cabinet minister rank or above.

"Small businesses from across the UK will challenge political leaders from the main parties today on what they would do if elected. Small businesses really are the backbone of the UK economy, employing 60% of the UK's working population," said John Allan, the national chairman of the FSB.

"We hope the chancellor, deputy prime minister and leader of the opposition lay out what they would do for this community if returned to government in May."