It may still be three years away, but already spread betters are taking punts on who is likely to win the next general election. If they controlled the outcome, the result would most likely be a hung parliament.

Cantor Index, a spread betting firm, opened to bets on how many seats each political party would win in the next election the day after Labour was re-elected in 2005. Cantor monitors changes every week. Currently the spreads say that Labour is likely to win 275-277.5 seats, the Conservatives 283.5-287 and the Liberal Democrats 53-53.7.