Britain:Senior ministers warned British prime minister Gordon Brown yesterday that the government needed to make "clear progress" next year and counter Tory messages that were "resonating" with the public, if Labour were to hang on to power.
The frank advice to the prime minister coincided with a poll suggesting Labour has clawed back some of the ground it lost to the Conservatives during the autumn.
The Tory lead over Labour has been cut from the double digits of recent polls to just five percentage points, according to a YouGov survey for the Sunday Timesthat put the Conservatives on 40 per cent.
But the poll found 58 per cent thought Mr Brown was doing badly as prime minister.
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, argued yesterday the government bore a collective responsibility for countering such negative perceptions and "improving [its position] in 2008".
Action was needed to "show that 2008 is not going to be the year when we curl up in a ball", he said.
The warning that the government needed to regain momentum was reinforced by one of Mr Brown's closest cabinet allies. Jack Straw, the justice secretary, admitted "some of the Tory messages have been resonating" and said the government needed to "adapt" to changing circumstances.
"We have got to make clear progress in the next year and everybody understands that," he told the Sunday Times.
The prime minister used his new year's message to pledge "unbending determination" to maintain Britain's economic stability in the face of global financial turbulence.
The credit crunch "is now the most immediate challenge for every economy and addressing it the most immediate priority", said Mr Brown in a message that reflects Downing Street's belief that the handling of the economy remains Labour's strongest card to play against David Cameron, the Conservative leader.
The Labour government will try to regain the political initiative in the new year with a series of policy announcements, starting later this week with plans to create a "new welfare state" by tackling the benefits culture.
Mr Cameron in his own new year's message vowed his party would "behave and work as though there is" going to be a general election in 2008, despite the fact there almost certainly will not be one.
The long haul to the next election, which could be as late as 2010, was a potential problem for the Tory leader, said one of his predecessors. Michael Howard told the BBC: "It's not going to be altogether easy for [Mr Cameron] to keep the momentum [ going] for two and half years."
But the Liberal Democrats welcomed the long run-in as a chance to recover their standing in the polls. Lord Steel, the former LibDem leader, said: "We had a very bad time this year. We're down at the moment. We've a long way to climb back but we think it can be done."
- (Financial Times)