Hague optimistic although polls show Labour ahead

The Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, insists the next British general election is "wide open", despite three new polls …

The Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, insists the next British general election is "wide open", despite three new polls putting Labour in the lead.

On the eve of his party's conference in Bournemouth Mr Hague shrugged off the latest polling evidence - confirming that the sudden collapse in Labour's support has been reversed - maintaining there was "all to play for" between now and the election, still widely expected to be held next summer.

And, as a cabinet minister acknowledged, the Tories could be serious runners in the election race. Mr Hague was boosted by evidence of mounting British opposition to membership of the euro amid reports of growing cabinet doubts over the timing of a referendum on the single currency.

Two polls published yesterday, in the News of the World and the Sunday Express, showed Labour leads of one and six points respectively.

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However, the leaked results of an NOP survey for the Labour Party, conducted after Mr Tony Blair's Brighton conference speech on Tuesday, put Labour on 44 per cent, a full 11 points clear of the Tories on 33 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent. If that were sustained, it would put Mr Blair back in the commanding lead he enjoyed before the fuel blockade and on target for a three figure majority after the election.

As he sought to top the government's expected across-the-board pensions increase, Mr Hague insisted: "Polls will go up and down - I rely on talking to real people across the country."

The Scottish Secretary, Mr John Reid, appeared to talk up the recent Tory revival, admitting voters had given Labour "a bit of a rocket". However, he said the "silver lining" was that people had been alerted to the Tories. "I just don't believe that if it comes to it, people would be happy waking up in the morning and hearing the words on radio: `Prime Minister Hague said in Washington'. It doesn't somehow ring true. Now there's a great deal of effort going on but the problem in the Tories is not the personality of William Hague, it's that they have become more and more captured by an extremist wing," he told GMTV's Sunday programme.

But speaking on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme, Mr Hague countered: "People know we can win the next election. You can see the disgust with the government, the increasing and deep disillusionment at the government. Now people are looking at us to say, `now let's look at the alternative'."