Prime Minister Tony Blair is less popular than his main rival for the first time in 12 years, according to a poll released yesterday.
Mr Blair also suffered more bad news on the electoral front, with results from by-elections for two vacant parliamentary seats yielding a poor showing for his Labour Party.
Pollsters YouGov, in a survey commissioned by The Daily Telegraph, found 30 per cent of Britons thought new Conservative Party leader David Cameron would make the best prime minister, against 28 per cent who preferred Mr Blair.
The Telegraph said it was the first time any of five successive Conservative leaders had been preferred to Mr Blair since he took the helm of the Labour Party in 1994 as opposition leader under Conservative Prime Minister John Major.
According to the poll, 39 per cent of respondents would vote Conservative if there were a general election tomorrow, against 33 per cent who would vote Labour. That compares to 35 per cent backing Labour in April, with 33 per cent who would vote Conservative.
Mr Blair, who led Labour to an unprecedented third consecutive general election victory last year, has pledged not to seek a fourth term.