Cameron's continuing collapse (3)

Two more polls this morning confirming the trend in the Channel 4 News poll, and suggesting that not too much can be read into Thursday's by-election results. A Populus poll for the Times gives Labour 41% to the Tories' 31%, while YouGov in the Telegraph puts Labour on 43% and the Tories on 32%. If Gordon Brown is looking for good polling data to help decide on an autumn election, he won't be disappointed. As Peter Riddell notes in the Times, Brown has a clear edge in Populus over Cameron on key leadership attributes: by 59 to 30 per cent on having what it takes to be a good prime minister, and by 60 to 45 per cent on caring about the problems faced by ordinary people. The Yougov poll is particularly devastating for Cameron: substantial majorities of voters brand him as out of touch, a bad leader and insubstantial. Even on the environment, fewer than a third of people think his plans to tax their holiday flights brave and courageous. To say he faces an uphill struggle at Blackpool gives new meaning to the concept of an understatement.