Labour is sailing into the British general election with leads of between 15 and 21 points, despite voters' growing belief that taxes have risen and public services declined under the Blair government.
Speculation about Mr William Hague's long-term survival will be fuelled by the latest NOP poll showing people expecting the Conservative Party to return to power in four or five years' time but under a different leader. By 62 to 28 per cent, those polled viewed Mr Hague as "a weak leader who will probably never become prime minister".
Accepting that his party had much more to do to prove itself electable, Mr Hague yesterday insisted the Tories could still win the election. And he attempted to turn the heat on Mr Blair, challenging the Prime Minister to accept BBC/ITV proposals for a series of head-to-head debates during the campaign.
As the Liberal Democrats joined the challenge to Mr Blair, Downing Street sidestepped the issue by saying it was currently considering proposals from an alternative broadcaster, and that there were practical difficulties with staging such debates. Of more immediate and pressing concern to Labour's election strategists, however, will be an apparent collapse of public satisfaction with the government's handling of the key issues of health, policing and education. While seemingly offering no electoral benefit to Mr Hague, the latest findings will sustain fears that apathy could affect Labour's showing in its traditional "heartland" constituencies.
A Mori poll for the Sunday Telegraph found almost as many people (44 per cent) are dissatisfied as are satisfied (46 per cent) with the National Health Service, with 44 per cent believing standards of hygiene in NHS hospitals have fallen under Labour. An NOP poll for the Sunday Times, meanwhile, confirmed voters' trust in Labour's management of the NHS even though, by a small margin - 34 to 31 per cent - people think it has deteriorated since Labour came to power in 1997.
These findings coincided with a survey revealing a "postcode lottery" showing huge variations in healthcare across Britain - while a health authority demanded to know why bodies were stored in a carpeted, unrefrigerated hospital room despite an extra mortuary being available.
After the Sunday Telegraph published a photograph showing seven bodies wrapped in sheets, the NHS Executive Eastern Region said answers had to be given by Bedford Hospital as to why the hospital's chapel of rest was used instead of the mortuary.
The Department of Health said the situation was unacceptable: "They do have additional mortuary facilities and for some reason, for which we and our regional office are seeking an explanation, they didn't use it." A spokesman said: "We will be carrying out an investigation immediately. It is quite clear that the way these bodies have been handled is unacceptable. I can assure people that we, like them, find this very upsetting and we will be investigating why it happened."
A spokesman for the Bedford Hospital said the chapel of rest, which is inside the mortuary complex, had been used after a temporary health and safety problem with the mortuary itself. "That is our normal procedure in an emergency situation," said the spokesman. "No body was in there for more than 24 hours and our staff said all the bodies were treated with dignity and respect and were kept totally covered."
The spokesman rejected reports that the emergency procedure would ever be used in warm weather.
The most comprehensive assessment of hospital performance to date, meanwhile, showed hospital death rates varying by up to 75 per cent - with 17 people dying in the worst-performing hospital for every 10 who die in the best.
The survey, published in the Sunday Times, showed three quarters of hospitals with the lowest mortality to be in the south of England, with inner London hospitals having the lowest mortality rate of any region - 15 per cent below anywhere else in the country.