Why such a sharp drop in just two days?

The weekly YouGov leadership ratings are out behind the paywall at the Sunday Times and show a sharp drop on polling earlier in the week.

Today’s numbers have 28% saying he’s doing his job as Labour leader “well” compared with 60% who say he’s doing it badly. That makes a net minus of 32 points, just one point off his worst figure ever in June.

David Cameron, meanwhile, is on 43% “well” to 51% “badly” a net minus of just 8 points.

These figures will be particularly disappointing for the young Labour leader because when the same question was put in a YouGov poll earlier in the week Ed had 33% saying well to 50% saying “badly” – a net minus of 17 points.

The gap between the two polls taken over such a short period is probably accounted for by the fact that the criticism of his Liverpool conference speech continued for several days after he made it – and, indeed, is the focus for more comment in today’s Sunday papers.

My main caveat, that I repeat ever autumn, is that polls can sometimes go a bit haywire during the conference season.

UPDATE: The figures in the original story and graphic were based on the graphic in the Sunday Times which does not marry with the data published a couple of hours ago by YouGov. The net deficit is 32% not the 33% that the paper suggested.

@MikeSmithsonPB