Watch the John Howard trip here

As political symbolism goes, it was hard to beat. John Howard stumbled and fell to his knees in a physical manifestation of a bruising two weeks for the Prime Minister in Australia’s mock general election campaign.

The awkward fall in front of television cameras, relayed swiftly to the world on YouTube, reflected freshly depressing opinion polls for the governing Liberal Party after a tense period during which personal differences have resurfaced at the top of the Government.

Mr Howard, who turns 68 on Thursday, made light of the fall, which came only hours after he was taunted by a young woman in a pink shell-suit in an encounter set up by a radio station. “Nice to meet you. Oh, you’re gorgeous. I love you Johnny,” the woman said.

His Government, which faces its fifth election in the Australian spring, is beginning to appear accident-prone. A few days ago it emerged that Peter Costello, the Treasurer, had accused Mr Howard of putting his own interests ahead of those of the Government and suggesting that the Prime Minister’s office leaked material aimed at damaging Mr Costello.

The Treasurer, quoted in a new biography of Mr Howard, also claims to be worried about the sustainability of the government spending programmes, many of which were initiated by the Prime Minister.

The Howard Government has also been accused of using the arrest of Mohammed Haneef — the Indian doctor alleged to have provided support to a terrorist organisation plotting attacks in Britain — as a scare campaign to lift its standing in the polls.

Concerns about the case follow a series of leaks and revelations that, contrary to evidence that prosecutors presented to court, Mr Haneef’s SIM card was not found in the Jeep that exploded at Glasgow airport. Today his ministers were at odds over the reason why Mr Haneef’s visa had been revoked.

Moreover, a ministerial adviser last week challenged the Howard Government’s account of how it came to the decision in 2001 to prevent the Tampa, a Norwegian ship carrying 438 rescued asylum-seekers, from entering Australian waters — an episode credited with winning Mr Howard the federal election that year.

None of which has helped the Government to claw back ground in opinion polls from the opposition Labor Party, which has maintained a clear lead on industrial relations, education, health and the environment. The latest Newspoll for The Australian newspaper shows Labor, led by Kevin Rudd, still holding an election-winning ten-point lead, with the Labour leader three points ahead as preferred Prime Minister.

Frustrations fostered by a failure to shift public opinion have led some Liberal MPs to suggest that it is “never too late” for a change in leadership. But today’s poll indicated that replacing Mr Howard with Mr Costello would fail to revive the fortunes of the Liberal-National coalition.

Mr Howard is convinced that Mr Rudd is using the Labor state premiers to challenge the Prime Minister on key issues such as water security and Aboriginal affairs, so that he can appear to support the Government while others do his dirty work.

He cited the Haneef case today, saying: “Mr Rudd said he totally supported the approach being taken by the Federal Police, yet his closest state ally is Peter Beattie, the Premier of Queensland . . . has made this outrageous attack on the Federal Police, calling them ‘Keystone Cops’.”

Another state leader, Steve Bracks of Victoria, threw an oar into the Prime Minister’s A$10 billion (£4.3 billion) plan to shore up the Murray-Darling river system’s drought-ravaged water supplies, rejecting a deal agreed by his fellow premiers.

Still, Mr Howard was granted some light relief that he is not the only victim in the hurly-burly of Australian politics. Ten days ago, the Prime Minister set tongues wagging that he was too old for the job after he forgot the name of a Liberal candidate.

Mr Rudd, 49, declined to criticise him at the time — and just as well. The opposition leader showed that relative youth is no protection against stumbles today when he misnamed a Labor candidate in a radio interview.

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