Labour has eaten into the Conservative poll lead, a poll showed in fresh evidence that the governing party enjoyed a better public response to its party conference.
David Cameron's Opposition still enjoyed an 11-point lead in the YouGov survey for the Sunday Times but Labour picked up three points to trail by 41% to 30%.
There was a similar story on the key issue of who would best handle the economy, where the Tory advantage was cut from 10 points to seven.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne used his conference speech in Manchester last week to warn a tough package of austerity measures was needed to get the nation's finances back in order.
But the poll found voters increasingly optimistic about the economic future, employment prospects and house prices, which nearly three times as many expect to rise than fall in the next year.
Labour's boost did not appear to be down to Prime Minister Gordon Brown however, with 35% saying the party would do better under a different leader and only 10% disagreeing.
The Liberal Democrats were unchanged on 17%, while other parties are down three on 12%.
YouGov interviewed a representative sample of 2,025 voters across Britain, online, on October 15-16.
A second poll, by ComRes for the Independent on Sunday showed the parties unchanged with the Tories maintaining a 12-point lead over Labour by 40% to 28%.
