More Doom and Gloom for Michael Howard

8.12.22pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 25th Jul 2004

Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, received another massive boost as a new poll showed another surge for the LibDems. The Populus poll for the News of the World showed the LibDems level with the Conservatives on 28% with Labour on 30%. Others are on 14%. For the Liberal Democrats to have reached parity with the Conservatives at this point of the electoral cycle is quite unprecedented. This poll comes as signs are growing of internal dissatisfaction with Michael Howard's leadership.

On 22 July Liberal Democrats gained a seat from the Conservatives in Sue Doughty`s Guildford constituency. Ken Reed won the Cranleigh ward of Waverley Borough Council (where the LibDems already had the other two seats) by 936 votes to the Tories` 855. There was another great result for the LibDems in Bournemouth, where Ben Prescott doubled the party`s majority over the Conservatives in the previously marginal Boscombe West ward. The ward is in the Bournemouth East constituency, where the LibDems need a swing of just 4.8% to win at the general election. The third LibDem-Tory challenge of the day again saw the LibDems triumph, with Stephen Mitchell holding Flitwick East ward of Mid Bedfordshire District Council with a 144 majority.

Leading Tories have admitted that it looks impossible for them to win the next general election. Tory big-hitter Lord Tebbit has described Michael Howard's leadership as "colourless" and warned Tory "dead-weights" to expect a third general election defeat. An article in the Independent reports that Michael Howard has 'admitted the party was not where he had wanted it to be by the summer.' The Guardian has reported that Tory MPs from across the party are voicing fears that Mr Howard`s recent remarks in the face of a series of Liberal Democrat by-election successes signalled panic. "I fear history may be repeating itself," one frontbencher said. "The interview has been a gift to Labour. It looks like Michael is starting to make the same mistake as Hague and Duncan Smith - starting to live by headlines."