The Sun
Brown and out in the Polls
By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON, Political Editor
The Tory leader has notched up a 14 percent lead over Labour in the most crucial opinion poll for five years.
Our YouGov survey shows he is heading for a 96 seat Commons majority at the next election with a 42 percent share of the vote.
Labour don't appear to have a prayer as they trail on 28 percent with the LibDems on 17 percent.
The Sun's study was carried out as PM Gordon Brown faces a hammering over his handling of the Afghanistan war. And it comes as he struggles to keep the lid on a growing crisis over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Every August poll in the summer before a spring general election has predicted the real result accurately to within one percent since 1996.
This means, if history repeats itself, Mr Cameron will sweep into power in 2010 after 13 years of New Labour.
Voters also say Mr Cameron would make a better Prime Minister than Gordon Brown by a factor of two to one. Our survey shows 38 percent of voters believe Mr Cameron would make the best PM - to just 19 percent for Mr Brown.
Six out of ten voters say Mr Brown is doing "fairly" or "very" badly in Number 10 Downing Street.
Only 16 percent are prepared to say he is doing a good job.
The results of the YouGov survey are a huge bonus to Mr Cameron as the political parties prepare for their annual rallies in three weeks' time.
Mr Cameron told The Sun at the start of his summer holiday he was ready to govern the country.
And our results suggest the British public are now prepared to put their faith in him.
Recent polling suggests whoever is ahead in the polls in the August before the next year's general election will win.
An August 1996 poll gave Tony Blair's Labour Party a 12 percent lead - and the following May he won by 13 percent.
In August 2000 surveys showed Labour had a 10 percent lead over the Tories - and Mr Blair won by nine percent the following spring.
And polls gave Labour a three percent lead in August 2004 - when Mr Blair won his third victory the next spring by exactly the same margin.
But our survey shows Mr Cameron still has work to do to convince the electorate his party is ready to govern.
Only 34 percent believe he has the right team to lead the country compared to 42 percent who disagree.
And voters are evenly split over whether or not he has the right policies to rule - 41 percent agreeing and the same number disagreeing.
Our poll reveals 51 percent of people think Mr Brown should have actively opposed the Scottish decision to release the Lockerbie bomber.
More than one third believe his release will do nothing to boost trade relations with Libya.
And a huge 57 percent say it would still NOT be worth letting him out of jail early even if it cemented trade deals.
The Sun survey reveals six out of ten of us predict the next year will be either "not great" or "miserable" when it comes to household spending and job security.
Nearly half, 48 percent, say they don't believe Mr Cameron when he says he is committed to saving the NHS.
But nearly seven out of ten, 66 percent, believe the extra billions spent on the NHS has been wasted instead of boosting patient services.
And 69 percent insist not a single penny more should be invested on health without a massive shakeup to improve efficiency.
YouGov surveyed 1,996 adults over August 27 and 28.
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