UK:A Conservative "hold" in the Henley byelection this morning was expected to cap a gloomy first anniversary for prime minister Gordon Brown in 10 Downing Street.
Boris Johnson vacated the safe Tory seat after his election as London mayor, with Conservative leader David Cameron opting for a quick contest in a determined effort to stop the Liberal Democrat challengers building momentum.
An ICM poll this week gave the Tories a record 20-point lead over Labour, with the governing party's national support at a record low of just 25 per cent. The devastating anniversary message for Mr Brown was that a full 71 per cent of voters think Labour cannot win the next election under his leadership - with only 2 per cent saying their impression of Mr Brown had gone up as against 49 per cent saying it had gone down. With a further 47 per cent of those surveyed saying their view had not changed, that gave the prime minister a negative overall rating of minus 47 per cent.
With already little to celebrate inside Number 10, it was confirmed last night that police have finished their initial inquiry into "proxy" donations to the Labour Party and passed their findings to the Crown Prosecution Service.
The CPS will now decide if anyone is to be prosecuted in respect of some £664,000 (€838,000) in donations paid to the party by property developer David Abrahams through third parties in breach of election rules introduced by Labour.
Mr Brown also suffered a minor embarrassment in his political back yard when Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander was found to have broken donation rules by failing to declare a donation to her leadership campaign. A Holyrood committee recommended that she be banned from the parliament for one day.
Meanwhile, former Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis will face a struggle to keep his campaign against 42-day detention for terror suspects in the news during the by-election in his Yorkshire constituency on July 10th.
Nominations closed yesterday, confirming that Mr Davis has failed to entice a serious challenger into the contest, which he forced despite the wishes of party leader David Cameron. However a total of 26 candidates - half of them independents and one representing the "Church of Militant Elvis Party" - will contest the byelection.