CLAIMS that voters are deserting the Liberal Democrats since Mr Tony

Blair took over as Labour leader were angrily denied yesterday.

Official Conservative sources were refusing to comment on the most

recent Gallup poll showing Labour leading the Conservatives by 33.5%,

the biggest gap between government and main opposition party in the

poll's 57-year existence.

Almost as important to Labour as its 55.5% to 23% lead over the Tories

was the drop in Liberal Democrat support from 17.5% to 14.5%, indicating

that Mr Blair could be making inroads into their support.

Labour pointed to an 18.5% swing when winning a ward in Louth, Lord

Archer's former seat, on Thursday night.

The Shadow Environment Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said: ''All across

Britain voters are turning to Labour as the party with new ideas, the

best leadership, and the right policies for national renewal.''

He claimed: ''The Lib Dems are wilting in the summer heat. They are

deeply split and saddled with an ineffective leadership more interested

in bluster than political progress.''

The Liberal Democrat vote collapsed from 42.1% in 1991 to 22.5% in the

Priory ward of Louth, despite the Tories not putting up a candidate

which might have been expected to help them. The Labour vote went up

from 34.6% to 51.9%.

Labour also pointed to its win in the Larkfield ward of Inverclyde

where there also was a swing from the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats quickly responded that they had a ''stunning

victory'' the same night at Ashford, Kent, where they won a seat from

the Conservatives with the Labour vote collapsing from 26.9% to 4.8%.

Mr Matthew Taylor, MP for Truro, the party's campaign chief, said:

''When it comes to votes in ballot boxes people continue to vote Liberal

Democrat because they want decent government.''

In Ashford, the Liberal Democrats who did not contest the ward in 1991

took 49.3% of the vote while the Tory vote slumped from 73.1% to 44.9%.

But the importance both parties are attaching to minor contests in

which between 600 and 700 people voted shows their awareness of a

developing situation in which possibly more voters than ever are up for

grabs.

With Mr Blair leading Mr Major by 45% to 15% on the Gallup question on

who would be best Prime Minister, the tide is running for Labour.

Conservative officials privately recall that they won the last

election with the polls against them most of the time, and that there

are probably two years or more until the General Election.

At a time when Conservatives have little to console them, some are

comforting themselves with the thought that a surge in Labour support in

some areas might prevent the Liberal Democrats taking some Tory seats.

It could also, they argue, enable the Tories to take some from the

Liberal Democrats.

But with Gallup showing deep dissatisfaction with the Government on

almost every issue, Ministers know they have more ground to make up with

voters than any government in modern British history.