The latest Populus poll, undertaken last weekend, shows that a big gender gap has re-emerged, with the Tories doing much better among women than men. The poll comes amid growing certainty that Mr Brown will take over as Labour leader next year, although Mr Blair’s own position is overshadowed by the police inquiry into the cash-for-peerages affair.

Overall, the Tories are unchanged since last month at 36 per cent and Labour has lost two points to 33 per cent. The Liberal Democrats are two points up at 20 per cent. The two main parties are level on 34 per cent among men so that the Tories’ lead comes entirely from women, who favour them this month by 37 to 31 per cent.

The gender gap is even larger when voters are asked how they would vote in three or four years if Labour were led by Mr Brown and the Tories by Mr Cameron. The Tories’ overall lead has narrowed from 42 to 34 per cent against a Brown-led Labour Party last month from 38 to 34 per cent now.

Men favour Labour under Mr Brown by 37 to 34 per cent over the Tories under Mr Cameron, but the position is more than reversed for women. Women voters prefer the Tories by 42 to 30 per cent.

These trends contrast sharply with most of the Blair era when the historic gender gap favouring the Conservatives virtually disappeared. Mr Cameron may have captured some of the appeal to women voters that Mr Blair had in his heyday.

The poll comes amid growing signs that Mr Brown will get the Labour crown without a challenge from a heavyweight Cabinet minister. Mr Blair is reported to regard Mr Brown’s election as leader as inevitable, and yesterday at his press conference recalled his endorsement in the Commons last week of Mr Brown’s qualities.

But Mr Blair’s own future remains clouded by the cash-for-peerages investigation and the expectation that he will soon be questioned by the police. Downing Street is refusing to give details about the questioning of Mr Blair’s staff, but his spokesman said that he would publicly announce the information if and when the Prime Minister himself was interviewed.

Mr Blair dismissed suggestions that his programme of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) was failing because they were seen by young yobs as a “badge of honour”. He was responding to recent suggestions by Mr Cameron that society needed to show a lot more love to young people in order to steer them away from crime and misbehaviour. The Prime Minister said that there were communities who were “in fear and have got drug dealers living in the street”.

He added: “Love is not the answer to that, I’m afraid. Evicting them from their homes and locking them up is the answer.”

Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,510 adults aged 18 and over by telephone between November 3 and 5. Interviews were conducted across the country. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. For details, go to www.populuslimited.com

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