UK: Conservative leader David Cameron suffered a double blow yesterday with a post-party conference season poll showing his personal popularity falling and his party once again lagging behind Labour.
Instead of the expected post-conference "bounce", the Ipsos Mori poll for the Financial Times showed the Tories two percentage points behind Labour among the 56 per cent of respondents describing themselves as certain to vote in the next general election.
Moreover, the poll suggested growing disenchantment with Mr Cameron personally, with his net approval rating down from plus 14 points in January to minus two points this month.
While students of the trends will await ICM and other poll findings before rushing to any hard judgments, the Conservatives will be alarmed at the idea that Mr Cameron might yet suffer the fate of his predecessors.
With dissatisfaction in this poll particularly marked among women voters, seemingly disenchanted by Mr Cameron's privileged background as well as his perceived lack of policies, Mori founder Robert Worcester said: "The pattern of Cameron's satisfaction ratings must be beginning to worry him and his advisers."
Mr Cameron was out in pursuit of the "grey vote" yesterday, telling Age Concern that a shift in attitude was required to ensure Britain's ageing population was seen as a boost and not a burden to the economy.