Three new opinion polls have offered conflicting messages for Labour as it seeks to respond to the Brent East by-election defeat.

A MORI poll in today's FT finds that Labour's lead over the Conservatives has widened to nine per cent. Labour is on 40 per cent, the Tories are on 31 per cent and the Liberal Democrats receive a 21 per cent share of support among those surveyed.

There is also strong backing for Tony Blair, with 42 per cent saying he is the best candidate for prime minister, compared to 15 per cent for Iain Duncan Smith and 18 per cent for Charles Kennedy.

Meanwhile, a Populus poll for the Times suggests that traditional Labour voters now regard the Lib Dems as better representing their views.

And a YouGov poll for the Telegraph finds that 67 per cent of voters believe that increases in public spending will "mostly be wasted".

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, home secretary David Blunkett said the government had to "change or die".

"We have got to get back in touch much more readily at the grassroots," he said.

And the departing Number 10 director of communications, Alastair Campbell, said the government had experienced a "difficult period".

"I think that what has happened is that we have been defying political gravity. And it has maybe gone back to a bit of normality now," he told the BBC.

Writing in the FT today, Labour MP Frank Field says Labour should win back public support by doing more to tackle anti-social behaviour.

"A policy of holding the line more effectively against the yobs, while showing that long term reforms were beginning to be rolled out, might begin to repair the damage," he writes.

"If this fails, a Tory general election victory on a record low turnout cannot now be ruled out."