THE Conservatives have sharply increased their opinion poll lead over Labour, compounding Gordon Brown’s woes and suggesting the Tories are beginning to move into an unassailable electoral position.

A YouGov poll of more than 2,000 voters for The Sunday Times puts David Cameron’s Conservatives on 43%, 16 points ahead of Labour, 27%, with the Liberal Democrats on 18%. Labour has shed seven percentage points since last month, with the Tories up by two, a nine-point increase in the Conservative lead.

Respondents were asked about the prime minister’s authority following recent reversals and his embarrassing YouTube broadcast. By more than two to one, 61% to 24%, people said Brown had “completely lost authority”.

With the uplift he enjoyed as a result of last month’s G20 summit in London now a distant memory, Brown has sunk back to the polling levels of last autumn, when there was intense plotting inside Labour to depose him as leader.

Now, 71% of people think he is doing badly as prime minister, up from 53% last month. His net popularity rating, taking into account those who think he is doing well, is -46%, its lowest since September last year.

Cameron and George Os-borne, the shadow chancellor, have moved into a 15-point lead over Brown and Alistair Darling when people were asked who they most trust to run the economy. A month ago – before the chancellor presented his unpopular budget on April 22 – the Tories’ lead was just two points.

YouGov asked what people would like to see done about the government’s record borrowing and soaring debt. There was strong backing for the strategy adopted by the Canadian government in the 1990s, when it cut public spending by a fifth over four years; 54% said they would back such a policy and only 22% were opposed. A majority of Labour supporters backed this policy.

Overall, respondents said the burden of reducing government debt should come mainly through cuts in public spending rather than tax rises. Only 7% favoured a policy of solely raising taxes to close the black hole in the public finances .

There was little enthusiasm, however, for the government’s policy of bringing private sector money into the Post Office. Only 20% backed full or part-privatisation of Royal Mail.

Even Tory supporters were unenthusiastic.

Despite the government’s unpopularity, voters do not echo Cameron’s call for an immediate election. While 37% would like to see an immediate poll, 53% would prefer to wait until next year, the end of the current parliamentary term.

Half the polling was done before details of ministerial expenses were published, including those of the prime minister, but no significant change emerged in the later results. Any damage to the government from the revelations on expenses could further hit Labour’s poll ratings ahead of the key local and European elections on June 4.

Joanna Lumley’s campaign for fair treatment of Gurkha veterans is hugely popular, the poll shows, with nearly three quarters of people, 74%, saying all Gurkhas who served Britain should be allowed to settle in this country along with their dependants.

Only 4% backed the government’s proposed restrictions, while 14% said there should be limits but not as tight as those proposed by Labour ahead of Lumley’s meeting with the prime minister last week.

Telling tune

Gordon Brown’s theme song is Road to Nowhere, the Talking Heads’ hit, according to YouGov. Given a list of songs to associate with the prime minister, 26% named it, followed by Things Can Only Get Better - new Labour’s 1997 theme - on 16%, a position it shared with Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.

Respondents did not associate Brown with more upbeat songs. Only 1% thought Mr Blue Sky and You Sexy Thing were right for him.

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