Lord Ashcroft: Tories' Poll Setback Shows Cost of "Talking Amongst Ourselves"

As well as losing ground on measures such as having a good team of leaders and being for everyone, not just the better off, the Conservatives are now neck-and-neck with Labour on dealing with immigration and crime - issues on which the Tories have traditionally held a comfortable lead.

As well as losing ground on measures such as having a good team of leaders and being for everyone, not just the better off, the Conservatives are now neck-and-neck with Labour on dealing with immigration and crime - issues on which the Tories have traditionally held a comfortable lead.

Though only a quarter of voters say they are satisfied with the job David Cameron is doing overall as Prime Minister, a majority still prefer him to Ed Miliband - less than a third say they would rather see the Labour leader in Number 10.

The main findings of the research include:

In his commentary on the research, which will be published on Conservative Home on Friday, Lord Ashcroft says:

"The year started promisingly enough. The government's mid-term review aimed to show what had been achieved and set the agenda for the rest of the parliament. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Europe speech was supposed to clear the decks and allow us to talk about the things we were elected to do.

"So much for all that. My poll shows the last six months to have been a missed opportunity to make progress on all the things that will determine who wins in 2015."

He notes, however, that the poll also contains little good news for Labour:

"The ten-point Labour lead is familiar, though 37% is not much of a score for an opposition party expecting to sweep to power in 23 months' time".

Lord Ashcroft argues that, for the Tories, the state of the polls is "the price we have paid for spending half a year talking amongst ourselves", and concludes:

"All in all, the first half of 2013 represents a time of stagnation that we could hardly afford. We have a good case to make on many of the policy areas on which we have lost ground, including crime, immigration, welfare reform and the economy. But people will only hear that case if we use the available air time to make it. The latest round of parliamentary scandal will make people all the more resistant to what we have to say, and the spending review later this month makes it all the more necessary to show we are doing what people expect of us. There is no more time to waste."

Notes to Editors

View the poll: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/prne/operations/Lord_Ashcroft_State_of_the_Parties_Poll.pdf