Polls Make Grim Reading For Tory Leader

Labour has raced into a ten point opinion poll lead as the Tories deal with fall-out from an unpopular Budget and the cash-for-access controversy, a survey shows.

Two thirds of voters agreed that tax changes announced by Chancellor George Osborne last week show his was "the party of the rich" , according to the ComRes research for The Independent.

And the results suggested that questions over the influence of major Conservative donors raised by a weekend expose had sparked a further immediate move away from the party.

The poll puts Labour up three points over the last month on 43%, with the Tories down four at 33% and the Liberal Democrats down two on 11%. Others gained three points to 13%.

Just over a third of the 1,000 telephone interviews for the survey were carried out on Sunday and Monday, after The Sunday Times revealed the claims of Tory co-treasurer Peter Cruddas .

Among those, Labour enjoyed a 17-point lead.

A second poll, by Populus for The Times, showed a four point lead for Labour over the Tories by 38% (down one) to 34% (down three).

The Liberal Democrats were unchanged on 11% while other parties gained three to 16%.

Almost half (49%) did not believe the pensioner tax allowance move was fair and more (53%) said cutting the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p would do "nothing" to boost the economy.

Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,500 adults by telephone and 2,056 adults online between March 23-25.