The Conservative lead over Labour has narrowed by two points in the wake of this week's controversy over backbench MP Derek Conway's employment of his sons as parliamentary assistants, according to a new poll.
The ICM survey for the Sunday Telegraph, taken in the two days after Mr Conway was stripped of the Conservative whip, put David Cameron's party on 37% - down three points since a similar poll a month ago - Labour on 32% (down one point) and the Liberal Democrats on 21% (up three).
Voters taking part also told the pollsters that the single policy that would make them more likely to vote Tory was putting more police on the streets.
The five-point Conservative lead, down from seven in early January, is well below the levels generally considered necessary at this stage of a Parliament to herald victory for the opposition at a General Election.
Coupled with an Ipsos Mori poll on Friday which put Labour one point ahead, it may spark concerns among Tory strategists that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has turned a corner after his disastrous autumn.
According to Sunday Telegraph analysis, the vagaries of the British first-past-the-post electoral system mean that today's result, if repeated at a General Election, would leave Labour the largest single party in a hung Parliament, with 289 MPs to the Tories' 273.
ICM interviewed 1,012 adults for the Sunday Telegraph on January 30 and 31.
