Labour lead Tories by 11 points

The YouGov survey put Labour 11 points ahead, on 43 per cent to the Tories’ 32 per cent. It also found that Ukip, with 9 per cent support, had pushed the Lib Dems, on 8 per cent, into fourth place.

The findings follow a torrid month for the Tory-Lib Dem coalition, which has faced heavy criticism over the Budget and its handling of the threat of strikes by fuel tanker drivers.

A second poll showed Labour extending its lead over the Tories to nine points.

Support for Labour had risen by 4 per cent to 42 per cent over the past month, while that for the Tories had fallen one point to 33 per cent, the Populus survey found. The Liberal Democrats were unchanged on 11 per cent

Populus also found that 61 per cent of voters felt the coalition was doing “badly”, up from 51 per cent in September. Some 24 per cent said the coalition was doing “very badly”, up from 15 per cent.

However Prime Minister David Cameron told the weekly Cabinet yesterday that the coalition was “working well together”.

Despite a series of poor poll ratings for both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats ahead of the May 3 local elections, which will pit the coalition allies against one another, Mr Cameron pointed to issues on which he said the Government was making progress.