BRITAIN: Conservative leader Michael Howard awakes to more bad news this morning amid mounting evidence that his strategy of branding prime minister Tony Blair a liar may have badly backfired.
The Irish Times understands that a number of overnight tracker polls show Labour holding on to a firm lead with just five days to polling day.
Mr Blair has reportedly suffered a personal hit from this week's renewed controversy over the war in Iraq, which effectively derailed Labour's election campaigning for five days.
However, the personal damage to him on the general "trust" issue does not appear to have dented Labour's lead, while it is the Liberal Democrats rather than the Conservatives who have gained a slight increase in their poll ratings.
Mr Howard himself yesterday appeared eager to move on from Iraq following Downing Street's enforced decision on Thursday to release the full text of attorney general Lord Goldsmith's secret advice to Mr Blair about the legality of the war.
Anecdotal reports from a number of constituencies yesterday reinforced private high-level Tory fears that voters are proving resistant to Mr Howard.
One leading figure said a number of traditional Conservative supporters told him they would not support the party while Mr Howard remained leader.
With the media again anticipating a possible Tory "wobble" if tomorrow's polls bring no relief, Mr Howard returned to immigration yesterday, declaring: "The British people want to move on now from the debate of the last few days. Character is an important issue for them, but now they want to hear about something better. And that is our approach."
Some analysts at Westminster thought Mr Howard's comments suggested his party's private polling was almost certainly giving him the same message as the public polls about his sustained personal attack on Mr Blair.
Mr Blair, meanwhile, was wrapping himself in the friendly embrace of chancellor Gordon Brown and the seemingly popular "dual" Labour leadership, while giving his apparent endorsement to an eventual Brown succession.
In an interview in the London Times Mr Blair said that, just days before an election, he had a great reluctance to feed newspaper headlines about who might eventually succeed him.
The country had yet to choose him again, Mr Blair observed, before adding: "But I have said on many occasions that Gordon will make an excellent prime minister. I am not going to say any more. But the two of us have worked extremely closely together in this campaign."
Few if any Westminster journalists could in fact recall Mr Blair having said anything as specific about the prospects for the chancellor succeeding him.
However, Labour was clearly hoping Mr Brown's strong endorsement of Mr Blair, and his integrity over the war, would help resume momentum after the prime minister's most difficult day.