Guardian/ICM poll: Voters favour David Cameron as PM by margin of 21%

As the Labour party decide on whether or not to oust Brown to reverse their ailing fortunes, a new poll has emerged telling them what many of us have been saying all along: they are wasting their time.

When people were asked to choose the best prime minister between Cameron and Brown, or Cameron and Miliband, the Tory leader beat both men by the same 21% margin.

The Tories are on 44%, up one, Labour on 29%, up one, and the Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 19%. At a general election, that would translate into the loss of 140 Labour seats and a majority of more than 100 for the Tories. Though Labour's share of the vote has crept up in the last two months, the result is still its worst August rating since the early 1980s.

And, astonishingly, Cameron has managed to achieve this without ever specifying what exactly it is that he is going to offer us. Other than he is not going to be New Labour.

The Labour party don't need a new leader, they need policies which reflect the needs of their core constituency which, as the Glasgow East by-election showed, they are simply no longer doing.

As a lifelong Labour supporter I simply don't know what Brown's government stands for. He has yet to define whatever it is that he hopes to achieve.

It is this, more than the lack of a Miliband figure, which accounts for his poor standing in the polls.

Asked to say which of Cameron and Brown would make the best prime minister, 42% of those polled say Cameron, 21% say Brown and 23% say neither. When voters are asked to choose between Cameron and Miliband, 40% say Cameron, 19% say Miliband and 18% say neither.

The breakdown of the results shows voters in every age bracket, every social class, and every part of Britain except Scotland believe Cameron would be a better prime minister than Brown. When Cameron is compared with Miliband, he wins in every age, class and region or country, except narrowly among 18 to 24-year-olds.

ICM also asked voters to compare their impressions of Brown and Miliband in 11 categories. Voters believe Brown to be more trustworthy, more prepared to make a stand on difficult issues, a more competent manager, and more likely to tell the truth than Miliband. The prime minister scored particularly well on being prepared to make a stand on difficult issues, ahead of Miliband by 32 points to 11. Miliband was seen as "more style than substance" by 41% to 6% and "more likely to spin" by 33% to 24%.

And yes, there is a terrible irony to Miliband being seen as "more style than substance" by a population saying that they would prefer Cameron to either Brown or Miliband, but that's just the way it goes. You can fool some of the people some of the time.

But this poll should, if nothing else, end the silly talk that all Labour needs is to elect a new leader. They don't. They need to reconnect with the electorate. And to do that they need to stop trying to be all things to all people. Stop the stupid Clintonesque triangulation techniques and start standing FOR something, rather than constantly seeking not to alienate the readers of the bloody Daily Mail who, utterly unsurprisingly, left the Labour camp a long, long time ago.

The problem for Labour, as Glasgow East again made bitterly clear, is that it is longtime supporters who are now making their way towards the exit.

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