Did his comments about the polls sound convincing?

The first stage of Brown’s fight-back started with his monthly press conference when, inevitably, he was pressured on the circumstances leading upto Saturday’s announcement.

Later in the day he has the Iraq statement in the Commons followed by a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party.

The big question, of course, is how is this going down with the public? Will Labour stem the flow to the Tories in the polls? The weekend surveys, of course, were all carried out before the election retreat announcement and the consequential media coverage.

Update – New Populus Poll overnight
The first poll which will measure reaction to Brown’s election retreat on Saturday is due to be published in the Times tomorrow. The normal practice for this poll is for fieldwork to begin on the Friday and continue until Sunday. So maybe 45% of the survey took place after Brown’s news became public.

Mike Smithson