Miliband seeks to shore up leadership as poll puts Tories ahead

Ed Miliband will try to shore up his leadership by saying Britain should work for the many, not just the privileged few, as a poll gives the Tories a three-point lead over Labour for the first time since 2010.

The poll by Ipsos Mori also found that just 13 per cent of those questioned thought Mr Miliband was ready to be prime minister, compared to 22 per cent in June.

The Labour leader has been undermined by speculation about his future with fractious MPs discussing the possibility of a rebellion.

Ipsos Mori found that Mr Miliband’s personal ratings, at net minus 44 per cent, were the lowest of anyone running to be prime minister for 40 years – including Michael Foot. David Cameron, the Tory prime minister, has a net rating of minus 15 per cent.

Mr Miliband will say in a speech on Thursday that he is set to fight the general election on his core belief that he wants to make Britain a fairer country.

Acknowledging the difficulties of the past few days, he will insist that he will not be distracted. “Between now and the election [opponents] will use every tactic to try to destabilise, distract us and throw us off course,” he will say. “We are in a fight because they know we can win.”

In an interview with the BBC he said he saw no point in complaining about negative media coverage. “This job is a tough job and it should be a tough job. It’s an audition to be the prime minister of the country, and, you know, they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and that’s true and, you know, my mettle has been tested but people want a prime minister, want a leader of the Labour party, who can come through tough times and will fight for them and that’s who I am.”

Ipsos Mori’s latest poll puts Labour at 29 per cent, behind the Tories at 32 per cent. A Labour aide argued that six out of nine polls in the past week had given Labour a clear lead of up to five points.

Bobby Duffy, managing director of the polling firm, said: “’The Labour leadership will clearly hope that this marks a low point . . . they’re still within touching distance, despite all the negative coverage.”

Nigel Farage said in a New Statesman interview that he would consider a coalition with Labour in return for an EU referendum: “I’d do a deal with the devil if it got me what I wanted.”

But senior Labour figures said privately that the party would never join forces with Ukip.

Mr Miliband was criticised last week when he carried out a small reshuffle of his shadow cabinet, moving Lucy Powell to shadow Cabinet Office minister and naming Jon Trickett as a senior adviser.

The promotion of the two loyalist MPs was seen as evidence of his circling the wagons rather than reaching out to other parts of the party.

But sniping about the experience of Ms Powell – described as a “bright young MP” in one newspaper – has enraged her allies: “She is a 40-year-old mother of three who ran Britain in Europe [a pro-EU pressure group],” said one. “That was a seriously complex organisation which makes the Labour party look straightforward.”

She had also acted as chief of staff for Mr Miliband before winning the seat of Manchester Central in a by-election two years ago.

Mr Trickett, seen as an unreconstructed left-winger, studied under Ralph Miliband, the leader’s Marxist father.

He prompted ridicule by some Blairite colleagues last month by penning a magazine article criticising “masters of the new world order” and warning of social disorder.

Mr Miliband seized the leadership in 2010 having refused to court much of the media beyond his own left-leaning world view. He had avoided the ritual lunches with reporters that characterise Westminster.

Peter Hain, one of his supporters at the time, had argued that Labour could disseminate its message through channels such as social media. “I don’t think the Sun or Mail or Telegraph have as much reach as they used to,” he said.

The past week has seen relations worsen further between the Labour press operation and the political media.

Tom Baldwin, director of communications, responded furiously to the reports of dwindling morale and shadowy plots against the leader. “You think you can get a Pulitzer for reporting two off-record sources,” he railed at reporters.

Some in the Miliband camp believe that negative coverage is linked to the party’s role in confronting Rupert Murdoch over phone-hacking at the News of the World.

“When you read Murdoch’s papers’ coverage of Ed Miliband, remember who Ed had the guts to stand up to,” tweeted Lord Wood, his right-hand man.

But journalists say much of the leadership speculation was triggered by a hostile report in the New Statesman, the left-wing pro-Labour magazine.