Jonathan Todd

Peter Oborne reports on a CCHQ note which states:

“The Conservatives have never won a General Election from a starting point as weak as they face now …  To become Prime Minister, David Cameron must surpass the electoral achievements of both Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill.”

The vogue for presenting David Cameron as the PM in waiting has made it far easier than it should be to forget how big a mountain he has to climb. James Macintyre reports of private polling commissioned by Number Ten that shows Labour ahead of the Conservatives. This would mean that Cameron hasn’t even left base camp, never mind virtually ascended to the summit, but Iain Dale suspects the hand of Labour spinners in the Macintyre report.

Even if Dale is right to do so, this explanation cannot be attached to the positive polling for Labour in yesterday’s Observer, which is more than enough to make the “PM in waiting” very nervous, not least given the cracks in Tory discipline and Labour’s renewed resolve to be fighters, not quitters.