We’re winning the poll war – to win an election, we need to tackle Cameron

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

As a Labour supporter it’s hard not to be pleased with the headline poll numbers. The recent Ipsos-Mori poll – which puts Labour ten points ahead of the Tories – is obviously cheering for activists slogging away in the cold as the coalition hacks away at the state.

We’re currently on the right course – unless every single pollster is wrong. Even the most nay of naysayers must see that now.

Except for one crucial detail. In our increasingly Presidential system, a huge chunk of the electorate aren’t voting for their local MP or a national party, they’re voting for who they want to see as their PM. In that regard, the Tories still have an advantage, and we’re still lagging behind.

David Cameron is the single biggest electoral asset at the Tories’ disposal. He communicates well, makes few high profile gaffes and is more popular with the public than his party. He’s a formidable opponent for Labour.

This is a particular problem for Ed Miliband – who remains less popular than the wider party. Much of this is due to his (lack of) public image, which can improve (and already has).

Both Cameron’s popularity and Ed’s anonymity can be tackled in two ways. The first has already begun. For too long Cameron was seen as “above the fray”, and was rarely seen as personally responsible for unpopular coalition policies – passing the blame to a Pickles, a Gove or a Clegg. A recent shift in focus – such as Ed Balls’ attack on the PM’s rhetoric on Hizb ut-Tahrir – has seen shadow ministers and Labour MPs begin to pin blame on the man who we must weaken to win the next election. Similarly, Miliband’s labelling of Cameron as “arrogant” at PMQs, and references to “Planet Cameron” form the outline of a strategy that portrays the PM as aloof and out of touch. These are criticisms which clearly rile Cameron too.

On top of this though, Miliband himself needs to e willing to expose himself more to the glare of publicity. Often he has been absent from the press, preferring to let other members of the team lead the attack. But for Ed to become a known quantity, he needs to spend some time being near ubiquitous. Only that way will he attrack the attention of the “squeezed middle” whose support he craves. Such ubiquity is not beneath him – it’s essential to place him at the forefront of the public’s mindset.

And it’s essential if we are to translate big poll leads into big wins at the next election. Miliband is PM material, but only if the public at large get to see that.