A new poll suggests the main parties are heading for a three-way split with each getting around 30 per cent of support.

The Populus survey for Tuesday's Times confirmed recent strong showings for the Liberal Democrats and a failure of the Conservatives to break through under Michael Howard.

While Labour will still be confident of general election success with 32 per cent around eight months ahead of the expected polling day, the results reveal a narrowing of the gaps between the parties, with the government having fallen seven points in the past year.

They also provide some credence to Cabinet minister Peter Hain's prediction this week that voters could let the Tories in "through the back door" in some seats if the Lib Dems take Labour votes away.

Despite their summer offensive the Tories have fallen by two points over the past month to 30 per cent, compared with 34 per cent a year ago.

This has allowed the Liberal Democrats, up two points over the past month and seven in the past year, to reach 26 per cent, which if translated into votes would represent a huge surge.

The even split between the parties has also been assisted by a decline in support for the UK Independence Party down to two per cent after breaking the ten point barrier in the run up to June's European elections.

However the shift appears to have had little impact on Howard's fortunes, with the Tory chief now in a worse poll position than his predecessor Iain Duncan Smith.

An average of all published polls since April puts the Conservatives on 33 per cent, 0.3 points lower than the same time last year.

With the Lib Dems rising fast and heavily targeting winnable seats - and Labour expected to recover support between now and the election - Howard could be under more pressure to defend second position than win power in 2005.