A Labour victory would be better for Britain than a hung Parliament, Kenneth Clarke suggested yesterday.

The Shadow Business Secretary said the public wanted strong governments, particularly in a time of crisis, and would be bewildered at the prospect of a governing party unable to wield decisive power.

His comments come as Buckingham Palace reviews the protocol for the role the Queen would play if no party wins an overall majority next spring. Yesterday’s Populus poll in The Times showed a sharp rise in the number of people expecting a hung Parliament — the first in a generation.

Palace officials are familiarising themselves with the principles that applied in the 1970s, that the Queen does not involve herself, and that it is up to the politicians themselves to come up with a durable solution.

Mr Clarke, addressing a Westminster lunch, said: “I do think that in the middle of an acute national crisis a hung Parliament would be one of the biggest disasters we could suffer.”

He said it would take a generation for the public to become accustomed to dealing with coalitions in power and pledged to “work like mad” to prevent a hung Parliament. “I don’t think we can work it,” he said.

“That would be a bigger danger than a Labour victory.”

The Populus poll for The Times put the Tory share of the vote at 39 per cent to Labour’s 29 and the Liberal Democrats on 18, which would give a notional majority of two, suggesting that a hung Parliament is more likely.

The number of people expecting an overall Conservative majority fell from 57 to 50 per cent and the number expecting a hung Parliament rose from 17 to 26 per cent.

A source close to David Cameron tried to play down the comments: “Mr Clarke is advocating a strong government. He is not saying that the British public should vote for a hung Parliament.”

In a second move that could antagonise the party hierarchy, Mr Clarke also appeared on the verge of claiming that the election was all but won.

“We are probably going to win,” he said, prompting grimaces from nearby Tory advisers. The Cameron source said: “There is no complacency.”

While heaping praise on the minister that he shadows, Lord Mandelson, who he said once signed a book “First Secretary of State etc”, the Tory grandee suggested that Mr Brown was all but unfit to continue governing, saying that the Prime Minister was “burnt out”. Mr Clarke also risked sparking a row with the party’s Eurosceptics by suggesting that David Cameron’s promises to bring powers back from Brussels would not result in a significant shift in the relationship between Britain and Europe.

Mr Clarke said that his leader’s new European policies were “largely reassurance”.

A Tory government would show “calmness and common sense” in its relations with the rest of the European Union said Mr Clarke, the party’s leading pro-European. The Shadow Business secretary also said that he would be against his opposite number in government, Lord Mandelson, being allowed to answer questions in the Commons.

“I’m rather against that, being an old-fashioned constitutionalist,” said Mr Clarke. “I’m not sure all these Lords ministers should be given the legitimacy they seek by being allowed to be directly accountable to the Commons.

“Only a Commons minister should have the privilege of being able to take part in the proceedings of the House of Commons.”

He said that Lord Mandelson was one of the few members of the Government still producing workable policies, “some of which we will match” in government. However, he said that he had no idea if he would be asked to serve in a Cameron government, as his career was “not bankable”.

Times Recommends

• Fern Britton: 'I still can't see that I was wrong'
• Extreme cooking
• Easy French: Tarte Tatin