LAB YouGov lead down to 6% again CON 34%, LAB 40%, LD 10%, UKIP 7%.Is the mood turning against Ed’s party?

— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) September 5, 2012

Two of the past 3 YouGov polls have had LAB leads down to 6% – and ComRes had it down to 4% when the party leader names were mentioned.

— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) September 5, 2012

Could doubts about Ed raise their head again?

The first polls of September have seen what could be a movement away from the large leads that Labour was enjoying.

Just look at what’s happened in the past four days. On Sunday the YouGov daily poll had CON 35%, LAB 41%, LD 9%, UKIP 7% and the view was this might be an outlier.

Then on Monday night we had, with ComRes’s conventional question CON 35%, LAB 42%, LD 12%, UKIP 3%. But the pollster also threw in some questions to test support for Vince Cable. Their “control” had the standard wording but with the current three leaders named and suddenly it became CON 35%, LAB 39%, LD 14%. When Cable’s name was substituted for Clegg the LDs moved to 18%.

All polling is about trends and where a number of surveys are showing the same direction of travel then you can start to draw conclusions.

Labour had a good August when all the focus was on the Olympics and not the ongoing party battle. It is now September and things might be changing.

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB