A significant majority of voters still do not believe the Conservative party has changed under the leadership of David Cameron, a special conference poll by Populus revealed on Tuesday.

The poll, which was carried out the weekend before the start of the Conservative conference in Manchester, show a large amount of support for the party is negative and based on disaffection with Labour.

The findings show a lack of genuine enthusiasm for the Tories, despite Mr Cameron’s assertion on Monday that the party had changed. It also suggests the Conservative leader is better liked than the party he is in charge of.

The Times, which commissioned the poll, says the results suggest it is a ‘Yes, but’ conference, far less positive than the Conservative party might have hoped for and hint at a much tighter race come the election when it takes place, most likely May.

Only 28 per cent of voters think the Conservatives have really changed under Mr Cameron unchanged from a year ago when Populus carried out the same poll.

In contrast, 68 per cent believe the party does not seem to have changed at all under Mr Cameron and is doing better "mainly just because the Labour government has become so unpopular". This is down only two points on last year.

That also tallies with an earlier Populus poll indicating about 30 per cent of the Tory vote is made up of people who are voting for them simply as a vote against Labour.

Only 30 per cent are would consider voting Tory as a positive vote for the party. Forty per cent of the respondents to the poll said it was a bit of both.

While a Conservative victory at the general election still appears to be the most likely outcome there are doubts about the real extent of Conservative party support among the electorate. The results also indicate why Labour is attacking the Conservatives on the grounds of not having changed at all.

The problem for the government appears to stem from a genuine level of disaffection among voters, only 19 per cent are satisfied with the Labour government, down from 25 per cent last December. At the other end of the scale 42 per cent say they are now dissatisfied with Labour and would rather have a Conservative government, up from 35 per cent.

Labour is still seen as minimising public sector job losses however, by 47 to 31 per cent over the Tories, but mentioning Mr Cameron narrows the gap to 48 to 37 per cent.

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