The leader of the Conservative party, David Cameron, speaks at the launch of the Conservative European Election Campaign, at St Mary's chambers in Rossendale, northern England May 18, 2009 REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

LONDON (Reuters) - The Conservatives are set for a landslide victory in national elections due within a year, the People newspaper said on Sunday, after the party extended an opinion poll lead.

The People’s poll, conducted by YouGov, showed 40 percent support for the Conservatives, up 2 percentage points from a YouGov poll earlier in the week, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party was down 1 percentage point to 24 percent.

Support for the Liberal Democrats was also down 1 percentage point to 17 percent.

The People said this put the Conservatives on track to win 378 seats at the next elections, versus 199 seats for Labour and 42 for the Liberal Democrats, giving them a 137-seat majority.

Labour have been particularly hard hit by a scandal involving legislators’ expenses as well as party infighting that threatened to topple Brown, who hopes to regain the political initiative on Monday with a series of new policies.