Mr William Hague declared the Conservatives "ready for government" yesterday, as two opinion polls suggested last week's fuel crisis has collapsed Labour's previously commanding lead.
While an NOP poll for the Sunday Times showed Labour and the Conservatives neck-and-neck at 37 per cent support each, a MORI poll for the News of the World put the Tories ahead for the first time in eight years, by 38 per cent to 36 per cent.
Just a month ago Labour were on 51 per cent support, while the Tories had slumped to 29 per cent, sparking speculation that the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, might be on course even to increase his 179 seat majority in the House of Commons.
Buoyed by yesterday's reported recovery, Mr Hague sought to exploit the bitter aftermath of the fuel protests, describing the protesters as "fine, upstanding citizens", and saying the government was "paying the price for arrogance and complacency."
Amid reports of cabinet divisions over refusal of the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, to agree a cut in fuel duty, Mr Hague said: "The government doesn't seem to have learned anything at all. The government has failed to say sorry, failed to recognise there is a crisis at all."
And Mr Hague told GMTV's Sunday Programme: "The Conservative Party is ready for government. We have got a team that's ready for government."
Mr Hague made that declaration as Mr Charles Kennedy kicked-off the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth with the prediction that the Liberal Democrats could overtake the Conservatives at the next election.
Mr Kennedy, speaking before the results of yesterday's polls were known, also claimed the fuel protest had vindicated his party's position and underlined that governments had to be honest about taxation.
However the government's apparent slump has done little so far for Mr Hague's personal ratings, up just three points to 29.
The MORI chairman, Mr Bob Worcester, said the results were sensational: "Blair hasn't listened. Public opinion is like an 800 lb gorilla. When you speak to it, speak politely. He's had the Womens Institute, the Millennium Dome and now the petrol crisis. He's got it all wrong."
Saying this showed "the fragility" of the Labour lead, Mr Worcester added: "If the Tories had somebody people were more interested in than Hague, Labour would be in serious trouble."
Plainly hoping the Tory recovery will prove a short-term blip, ministers yesterday said the findings were unsurprising. The Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, told GMTV: "I don't think it's particularly surprising over the last week that we should suffer what I think will be a short term knock . . . This is the result of what's been a bad week. I will be much more interested in the polls in a month's time. If the polls are still as bad as that then, we will clearly have a problem."