Cabinet Office minister Dr Mo Mowlam has admitted the Blair government is having difficulty getting its message across to voters, after an opinion poll showing its support at its lowest level since the general election. The poll - the third in a week confirming a slide in the government's popularity - put Labour's support at 41 per cent, below its general election support of 44 per cent for the first time.
The poll showed Labour down four points since last month, the Tories up two points, on 34 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats up three points, at 18 per cent.
Downing Street's alarm at evidence that the Tory leader, Mr William Hague, has connected with voters on issues like asylum-seekers and law and order will be compounded by a sharp fall in the Prime Minister's Mr Blair's personal ratings, from +34 points a year ago to just +1 point now.
Dr Mowlam, who remains the most popular member of Mr Blair's government, with a personal approval rating of +40 points, insisted that Mr Blair's fall in the popularity stakes was merely the result of negative press coverage.
"What we are seeing and have seen in the press in the previous couple of months is a caricature of what Tony actually is," she told the BBC's World At One programme.
"What we have to do is get across better what we have achieved and what Tony does. He is a strong leader, he is a determined leader, nobody denies that and he always will be . . . If you work with him day in and day out as I do, the caricature is not real, but that is what people see."
Dr Mowlam went on: "The lesson we have to learn is that, even though we are listening, people don't perceive that we are . . . that is what we have to do more to answer."