Tim Yeo says Tories cannot afford to be complacent

A survey for the Independent on Sunday found 42% of those polled were unhappy with Michael Howard.

Mr Yeo said the party had made great progress but had reached a "plateau".

Labour seized on the Conservatives' difficulties by launching a Big Brother-style website where senior Tories can be "voted out" by the public.

'Credible alternative'

Talking about the difficult challenge of mounting an efficient opposition, Mr Yeo said leadership was not a problem, as Michel Howard was widely supported by Tory MPs as well as voters.

While Mr Howard's predecessor, Iain Duncan Smith, had not been a "credible alternative" as prime minister, prospects for the party had greatly improved, the shadow environment secretary said.

"Of course we would rather be doing better in the opinion polls than we are," Mr Yeo said.

"Of course we would rather have come first or second in the by-elections.

Michael Howard's popularity is at its lowest point since he became leader

"But the truth is that those of us who have been working at the coalface for quite a long time, now know where we were on August 1 last year.

"Now we have a leader who is a credible alternative to Tony Blair. Then we did not.

"Now the party is more united than it has been for a decade. Then it was not.

"Now it is the Conservatives, actually, who are neck-and-neck with Labour in the overall polls."

Tory 'Big Brother'

In a separate development, taking the cue from internal rifts within the Tories, Labour has launched an internet game called Tory House of Turmoil.

Housemates include Mr Howard, shadow ministers Oliver Letwin, David Davis and Lord Saatchi, as well as other personalities at the centre of alleged internal rows such as Lord Tebbit and Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

A Conservative spokesman later accused the "once-feared Labour Pary machine" of having turned into "a group of political anoraks engaged in childish student politics".

"The launch of this website says more about the character of Tony Blair than it does about the Conservative Party," he added.

Tougher challenge

Mr Yeo played down recent bickering within the party, and was paramount that Mr Howar'd leadership was not a problem.

He said there was still "a huge mountain to scale", but the party had made "very good progress" and everything could not be done "in one go".

Speaking on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Yeo acknowledged the Tory opposition was in a far more difficult position now than Labour was in the run-up to the 1997 election, when the troubled administration of John Major offered "an open goal" to the aspirations of Mr Blair's party.

While the Labour party led the polls in early 1997, the Tories under Mr Howard were still behind Labour in Sunday's poll.

According to the Mori survey, in which 1,988 adults across the country were interviewed between 22 and 27 July, Labour was on 32%, still one point ahead of the Conservatives with 31%.

The Liberal Democrats totalled 24%.