Dramatic Tweet exchange with Andrew Neil

Spoke to major Tory donor tonight. "Tory campaign useless. Cameron's heart not in it. Not looking good".

— Andrew Neil (@afneil) April 21, 2015

@afneil DC has wanted out for a while. He has just wanted to go out on some sort of high and hasn't been able to find that high.

— Tim Montgomerie Ù† (@montie) April 21, 2015

This is not the sort of message that the Tories want to come out just two weeks before the big day and at a key moment with postal voters.

Cameron’s great strength is that he’s always been seen as more popular than his party something that had appertained since he became leader nine and half years ago. There is little doubt that he is an electoral asset.

Even though Miliband’s ratings have risen during this campaign he still trails the CON leader by some margin. So questions about how long Dave wants to stay are central to the whole Tory “offer” as we saw right at the start of the campaign. Then he made clear that he would stay for the length of the next parliament.

The danger now is just as Labour’s likely reliance on the SNP is dominating the campaign speculation about Cameron’s staying power could change the narrative.

Mike Smithson

For 11 years viewing politics from OUTSIDE the Westminster bubble

For latest polling and political betting news follow @MSmithsonPB