BRITAIN:Gordon Brown's options for an autumn or spring election have been sustained by a fresh poll giving Labour an eight-point lead while suggesting David Cameron is now Britain's least popular party leader.
In Brighton today Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell will seek to rally his party and bolster his leadership amid clear jockeying for position by "young Turks" anticipating a future battle for the succession.
However, it was "the swing against Cameron" that headlined yesterday's ICM poll, registering Mr Cameron's biggest deficit since becoming Conservative leader, with Sir Menzies enjoying a slightly lower "net deficit" with voters than the Tory leader.
The "Brown bounce" continued, with 55 per cent of voters saying they are satisfied with his performance three months after the Blair succession, as against 23 per cent who say they are not, a net positive rating of 32 points.
Tories took solace that the polling was concluded over the weekend, before the Northern Rock bank crisis reached its peak.
However, the undeniably bad news for the Conservatives was that Labour has regained its lead on all nine major policy issues on which ICM regularly tests opinion, including six on which the governing party had lagged behind the Conservatives.
While 56 per cent of respondents believed the National Health Service had either got worse or at least failed to improve despite massive extra government spending, Labour now has a 13-point lead over the Conservatives as the party thought to have the best policies.
Despite the recent focus on violent crime, Labour has regained the lead on law and order and, likewise, on Europe, despite a sustained Tory attack on Mr Brown's refusal to hold a referendum on the new EU treaty.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague accused Mr Brown of undermining trust in politics by making the "nakedly cynical" calculation that he could bulldoze the treaty into law because it was no longer called a constitution.
"In future, no one can have any sensible grounds for believing a political promise from Gordon Brown," declared Mr Hague.
Mr Brown was presiding over a "political" cabinet ahead of next week's party conference in Bournemouth, telling ministers to use the gathering to show that Labour "has the vision to change the country for the better".
General election co-ordinator Douglas Alexander said: "Gordon has said that for the last few months we have sought to show people that we can govern the country well in some very challenging times. Now over the next few days we've got to show we have the vision to change the country for the better."
With many Liberal Democrats exercised as to how they should play their hand in the event of a hung parliament, Sir Menzies declared himself sceptical about such an election outcome, and vowed to remain leader into the next parliament. He declared himself "totally relaxed" after home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg confirmed he would probably seek the leadership after Sir Menzies stands down. Mr Clegg's main rival, Chris Huhne, said such talk was "premature".
Mr Brown was accused of "closing down debate" in the Labour Party after 96 of 120 contemporary motions were ruled out of order. Mr Brown is planning to reduce trade union influence at conference by scrapping the "contemporary resolutions".