Labour has taken a significant lead in the polls only four weeks after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.

Mr Brown, who called Cabinet ministers to Chequers yesterday for a stock-taking session on the floods and political campaigning, now has the biggest lead over David Cameron since he became Tory leader.

Labour’s private polling is understood to show an eight-point jump in the party’s standing in a month. A YouGov poll in The Daily Telegraph today puts Labour on 41 per cent, up three points since June and nine points ahead of the Tories, who are down three on 32 per cent. The Liberal Democrats are up one on 16.

Mr Cameron’s personal rating is also down sharply with just 27 per cent saying that they believe he is proving a good leader compared with 43 per cent in February. Mr Brown has an 18-point lead over Mr Cameron when people are asked who would make a better Prime Minister.

The run of polls in Mr Brown’s favour will increase speculation this weekend that he may call a snap election in the autumn. That remains unlikely, with the Prime Minister preferring to wait and see whether he can maintain his solid lead, and then go to the country in May.

The Cabinet session, the first that Mr Brown has called at Chequers, was due to have been about political strategy. But with the floods still dominating ministers’ thoughts, much of the time was spent discussing detailed plans to improve the plight of tens of thousands of people in central England.

Mr Brown had asked ministers to come up with ideas for intensifying their party’s momentum during the summer months. Most ministers admit privately that they are amazed at the scale of the “bounce” that Mr Brown has received. Some say that he must be tempted to go to the polls within weeks, as the Conservatives first demanded when he took over, to secure his own mandate.

Mr Brown will travel to Washington at the weekend for his first meeting as Prime Minister with President Bush. Mr Brown will go to Mr Bush’s presidential retreat at Camp David for dinner and lengthy talks on Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Darfur and Iran. The Prime Minister will be at pains to confirm that he is no less keen on the special relationship than his predecessor, despite the speech in Washington earlier this month by his close ally Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, hinting that less emphasis should be placed on “military might” in future.

Mr Bush has already hailed Mr Brown’s “strong response” to the attempted car bombings in London and the attack on Glasgow airport during his first days in office.

Mr Cameron, meanwhile, will embark today on a media offensive to try to boost his ratings. In an interview to be broadcast onFive Newstonight, the Tory leader will say that he questioned his faith in God when his eldest son was born severely disabled.

He also said that he had “huge sympathy” with Mr Brown, who has endured the “body blow” of his son having cystic fibrosis diagnosed.

Asked if he was a religious man, Mr Cameron said: “I am a Christian, I go to church, I believe in God, but I do not have a ‘direct line’. ”

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