Cameron under pressure amid ‘meltdown’ and elitism claims

British Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to reassert his authority over a Conservative Party reeling after a week which saw the resignation of a senior minister and claims of incompetence and elitism at the heart of his government.

After one of the most bruising weeks for the centre-right party since it took power in a coalition in 2010, the Conservatives have slipped further behind their Labour rivals, polls showed yesterday. The next election is due in 2015.

Cameron will try to regain the initiative today with a speech setting out a tougher stance on crime after a series of policy missteps, U-turns, and embarrassments since an unpopular budget in March.

The veteran Conservative member of the House of Lord, Norman Tebbit, one of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s closest allies, attacked what he called “this dog of a government”.

“The abiding sin of the government is not that some ministers are rich, but that it seems unable to manage its affairs competently,” he told The Observer newspaper.

Education Secretary Michael Gove dismissed headlines talking of “meltdown” and a “catastrophic week” as the passing “froth of political life” that affects all leaders, including ex-Labour prime minister Tony Blair, who won three elections.

Cameron’s judgement was questioned after he backed Andrew Mitchell, the minister accused a month ago of swearing at police and calling them “plebs”, a class-laden word for working people.

Opponents seized on the affair as evidence senior Conservatives form an arrogant elite, adrift from ordinary Britons hit by the recession.

Mitchell finally resigned on Friday, still denying he had used the word “pleb“, but apologising for swearing at police who refused to open the main security gates at Cameron’s Downing Street office to allow him through on his bicycle. That did not end the debate about Conservatives and class.

On Friday, Chancellor George Osborne sat in a first class train carriage with a second class ticket. Aides said he paid for an upgrade, but the story still dominated headlines and fuelled a perception that the Conservatives are out of touch.

A Sunday Mirror poll put the Conservatives down two points from last month on 33%, behind Labour, up three on 41%. A second poll had Cameron’s party on 30%, down 5% in 10 days, with Labour on 43%.