ED MILIBAND has come under fire from senior figures in his own party, as a poll showed the Tories moving into a two-point lead.
The Labour leader was accused by party grandee John Prescott of showing a severe lack of ambition in a damning assessment of his "far too timid" strategy and underwhelming conference performance.
Two prominent Labour donors joined the criticism. Lord Noon, one of the party's significant individual benefactors, was quoted by The Sunday Times as saying the party "really need to buck up" and its plans for a mansion tax on £2 million-plus homes was "hopeless".
Lord Levy, who was Tony Blair's chief fundraiser, also criticised the tax proposal - part of a package to pay for extra NHS investment.
"I think that is a policy that is totally inappropriate and I see no validity in that policy whatsoever. Do I believe that the party needs to be more close and friendly to business? Yes, I do."
The YouGov survey for the Sunday Times suggested Mr Cameron had scored a significant conference bounce as his party moved to 36 per cent, with Labour on 34, Ukip 13 and the Liberal Democrats 7. A week ago the Conservatives trailed by five.
Mr Miliband continues to lag badly behind the PM in personal ratings, with 22 per cent saying he is performing well and 68 per cent poorly, a net score of minus 46 points. By contrast Mr Cameron's ranking is only just negative (45 per cent and 49 per cent).
Mr Prescott said the Opposition leadership appeared to have resigned itself to not winning an overall majority at the 2015 general election.
He urged: "Come on Ed. Ditch the pollsters, the focus groups and US-style politics. Be bold, be brave and let's go all out for the win."
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