Latest opinion polls

Both the latest ICM and You Gov polls make encouraging reading for Labour with ICM giving us a 4% lead and a 3% lead in You Gov. If repeated at the General Election we would easily be returned to Government. Of course like any poll it's a snapshot of opinion and it was inevitable that they would show a Labour lead given the favourable press coverage we've received this week and the undoubted honeymoon that any new leader has.

Of course I'm not jumping up and down thinking we're are certainties to win the next election, we have a long way to go and the only poll that counts is the General Election. The polls at this present team will be favourable to us, the picture after the Conference season when politics will have returned to normality will be interesting.

The two early tests of opinion in Ealing Southall and Sedgefield on July 19th will also be interesting, I've no doubt we should win both by-elections but we cannot be complacent and like any by-election they will be challenging.