The latest opinion poll by ComRes is far from heart-warming for Labour, suggesting that the party has lost its poll lead over the Tories for the first time in seven months. The survey was done for tomorrow’s Independent newspaper.
The poll finds that Labour support has dropped two points since the last ComRes survey to 37 per cent, putting the party level with the Tories, whose support has fallen by one point. Liberal Democrat backing has recovered by one point to 12 per cent.
Luckily for Ed Miliband he is still on honeymoon and therefore, one presumes, not reading political opinion polls. But at this stage in the cycle – new leaders usually enjoy a fair wind in their initial few months - you might expect him to be doing rather better.
Not least given that the coalition has announced huge cuts in public spending, unveiled an unpopular shake-up of the NHS and launched a quixotic* military campaign in Libya.
* Perhaps a bit unfair on David Cameron but there is very little public support for the Libyan campaign and still no clear endgame in sight.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey