The pound has slipped to a five-year low against the dollar amid growing uncertainty about the outcome of the general election. But the pound fell to near 1.46 against the US dollar, its lowest level since June 2010 - just after the last election when no party secured a majority. Different polls have variously put the Tories and Labour narrowly ahead, with David Cameron and Ed Miliband both facing the prospect of having to rely on smaller parties to form a government. The pound fell to near 1.46 against the US dollar, its lowest level since June 2010 - just after the last election when no party secured a majority . Experts have warned of the impact on the economy of a badly hung parliament, with neither major party able to form a stable government. There are fears it could sent pound plummeting by another 10 per cent. Today’s fall in the value of the pound was also impacted by figures showing industrial production grew by just 0.1 per cent in February. Construction shrank by 0.9 per cent following a 2.5 per cent contraction in January. It was suggested that the figures pointed to overall growth slowing to 0.4 per cent for the first quarter, down from 0.6 per cent in the last three months of 2014. That would be the weakest pace of growth since the end of 2013. Labour have made gains in a series of opinion polls, enjoying leads in three and cutting the Conservative lead in another. The latest survey also contains good news for the Liberal Democrats who gain three points to draw level with Ukip for the first time in more than 18 months. Based on the 2010 election result, David Cameron needs to win another 23 more seats to secure a majority in the Commons, while Ed Miliband needs at least  70. Nick Clegg is defending 56 seats, but is braced for heavy losses . ComRes research for ITV and the Daily Mail suggested the race was still too tight to call with the Tories on 34 per cent and Labour on 33 per cent, but that compared with a four-point deficit for Ed Miliband's Opposition at the start of the campaign. Other polls gave Labour leads of between three and six points and one suggested that for the first time voters thought Ed Miliband was doing a better job than David Cameron. The Opposition gained two points on last week in the Survation poll for the Mirror, while the Conservatives dipped one, to move ahead by 35 per cent to 31 per cent. The Labour leader - despite still trailing his Tory rival as the best to be prime minister by 37 per cent to 25 per cent - will be delighted at their latest personal approval ratings after lagging consistently behind throughout most of his leadership. A hard-hitting report by BlackRock, the largest fund manager in the world, said last week that ‘a soothing outcome for the markets is hard to imagine’ given Labour’s anti-business policies and Tory plans to hold a referendum on Britain’ s membership of the European Union. ‘Labour would be tough on business – and might be perceived as lacking fiscal responsibility,’ the US giant said in the report. ‘A Conservatives-dominated Cabinet would pave the way for an unsettling referendum in 2017 on the UK’s EU membership. ‘Whoever wins – and the result could take some time to emerge – will lead a weak government likely to pass only watered-down legislation.’ BlackRock, which invests in major British companies such as Tesco, said weeks of horse-trading to form a government would be ‘harrowing for the UK’.
Pound near 1.46 against the US dollar, its lowest level since June 2010 . Polls suggest neither Tories or Labour will manage to win a majority . Fears the pound could fall another 10% if a badly hung parliament .