BritainLabour increased its election lead yesterday on a difficult day for the government as administrators started serving redundancy notices on an initial 5,000 MG Rover workers at Longbridge.
Trade secretary Patricia Hewitt said the news was "devastating" but insisted the government had done everything possible to save Britain's last volume car-producer, while the Conservatives feared the possible impact on up to 20,000 jobs throughout the region.
The collapse of talks with Shanghai Automotive about a possible investment deal derailed Prime Minister Tony Blair's election campaign schedule, as he and Chancellor Gordon Brown travelled to the Midlands to announce a £150 million support package.
When the threat to Longbridge emerged a week ago most commentators agreed the electoral impact of closure would almost certainly be limited to half a dozen marginal Midlands seats, and the government was bolstered again yesterday by trade union support and the absence of any suggestion by opposition parties that it could or should have acted differently.
The Conservatives are hoping Labour will nonetheless be damaged by the Rover collapse, and by Thursday's forced apology by election supremo Alan Milburn for the murder of policeman Stephen Oake by an illegal immigrant planning a chemical attack.
But as Michael Howard returned to the offensive over asylum and immigration yesterday, the latest YouGov poll suggested the Conservatives may have made all the gains they can expect from such core issues.
Last weekend YouGov had Labour and the Conservatives running neck and neck on 36 per cent. By yesterday Labour had opened up a five-point lead, with Mr Blair seemingly boosted by previous don't-knows climbing off the fence to declare for him and by Mr Brown's restoration to the fore of Labour's campaign.
Repeated on May 5th this would give Mr Blair a majority of 116 in the new Commons.
As the first full week of the campaign drew to a close, Labour sought to press its advantage by stepping up its criticism of the Tory leader.
In a speech in Watford, Mr Howard said fair play was at the heart of being British but that this was being undermined by people who entered the country illegally, disregarded the rules and defied the authorities.
And he rejected criticism of his comments about a "small minority" of Travellers who flouted the law as evidence of "political correctness" and a "kind of madness that is creating a growing gulf between the people and the new Establishment".
However, Mr Blair again accused Mr Howard of "opportunism", while cabinet colleague Margaret Beckett said Mr Howard's fitness to lead was increasingly an election issue.