ANY Conservative bounce left after its conference last week was short-lived. The two main parties are at level pegging again as Parliament returns from its 11-week recess despite the leadership crisis that engulfed Labour in the summer.

Tony Blair called on Labour MPs last night to put the troubles of recent months behind them as a new Populus poll for The Times, undertaken over the weekend, showed that support for the Tories is unchanged from early September at 36 per cent. Labour has gained three points to reach 35 per cent and the Liberal Democrats are down two points at 18 per cent.

The poll suggests, however, that David Cameron would comfortably defeat Labour at the next general election in three or four years whether the party were led by Gordon Brown, John Reid or Alan Johnson. Support for the Tories would be 40 per cent or more in each of these cases with Labour reaching no higher than 34 per cent. A consolation for Mr Brown is that Labour would do no better under either Mr Reid or Mr Johnson.

Mr Blair, at the first parliamentary party meeting since he was forced to confirm that he would go before next year’s conference, told MPs to forget the internal wrangling of the past few weeks and concentrate on attacking the Conservatives on policy. With the party more settled after Mr Blair’s well-received conference farewell he said that Labour MPs should expose the weaknesses of Mr Cameron’s stance on several issues, including the health service.

Not a single MP called on Mr Blair to speed up his departure plans and there appeared to have been no attacks on the alleged “plotters” who were believed to be trying to force him out within days.

But there was anger over David Blunkett’s memoirs, which are being serialised in two newspapers. Jim Devine, MP for Livingston said: “I don’t want to pick up my newspaper in the morning and read an attack on my Government from our own side.”

Mr Blair told MPs: “What we want to be is a united and stable party. We want to have a strong Queen’s Speech and need to make sure we are effective in fighting the Tories.”

The Populus poll, based on interviews between Friday and Sunday, contrasts with a weekend ICM poll, taken on Wednesday and Thursday, immediately after David Cameron’s conference speech that put the Tories on 38 per cent, against 32 per cent for Labour. Support for the Tories seems to have slipped a little since mid-summer, with Labour up three to four points over the period, largely at the expense of the Lib Dems.

The findings of polls showing Mr Brown trailing to Mr Cameron will increase the impatience among his supporters for him to be given the chance to get at the Tory leader. But the overwhelming mood at last night’s meeting was that Mr Blair should be allowed to go in his own time.

In the meantime the three main contenders to replace him are displaying their leadership credentials. On the first day back at Westminster Mr Reid gave MPs a statement on measures to deal with prison overcrowding and Mr Johnson spoke about children in care. Mr Brown will move outside his Treasury brief again today to give a Chatham House speech about security.

Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,515 adults by telephone between October 6 and 8. Interviews were conducted acorss the country and the results have been weighted to be representative of all adults. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council. For more details, go to www.populuslimited.com.

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