leadership issues...

Lobbydog has been chatting with all sorts of MPs today about their party leaders – gripes abound.

Both Labour and Tory members felt their own leaders were making big mistakes.

From the opposition there was irritation that Cameron had failed to capitalise on the polls lead he enjoyed a few months back.

But there was also growing concern at his style of leadership – not even letting most of the shadow cabinet know what was going on let alone involving the parliamentary party.

That might have been ok for Blair in 97, they said, when there was a Government with a large majority.

Cameron, they pointed out, should remember who he will rely on if he has a majority of less than 30.

As for Labour I spoke to two people today who said the Government needed to outflank the Tories on spending cuts.

Trident should be cut, for example. Winter fuel allowance might be rolled into pension benefits – meaning the most needy would still get the same amount of money, but that savings could be made on admin and pulling it back from those who didn’t rely on it.

With a few steps the Government could look tougher on spending without hitting the core Labour vote too hard, they claimed.

But Brown seemed to be incapable of taking certain steps and the current line, claiming that spending would simply continue, they said, was making them look dishonest.