Ed Miliband faces a battle to win the support of his own party as a poll found almost half of Labour voters would prefer another leader.
As Mr Miliband prepared to deliver his final Labour conference speech before the general election, it was revealed that only 44 per cent of Labour voters think he is the right person for the job.
The damning Survation poll of 1,090 people for The Huffington Post also found that 55 per cent of voters from across the political spectrum think someone else would do a better job of leading the party. Just 24 per cent think he is Labour's best available leader.
David Miliband - who was dramatically beaten to the party's leadership in 2010 - would be the most popular choice to replace his younger brother. The former foreign secretary left frontline politics last year as he emigrated to New York to head the International Rescue Committee.
Thirty-one per cent of Labour voters polled believed he would be the best replacement, as did 21 per cent of voters from across the spectrum.
The findings came as Mr Miliband prepared to give his last keynote speech to party members before May's general election today.
In the speech at Labour's annual conference in Manchester, he will put the NHS at the centre of a 10-year-plan for Britain as he aims to show his party is ready for government.
Mr Miliband will announce new taxes on tobacco companies, as well as a mansion tax on homes worth more than £2m, before outlining how many doctors and nurses the money could be used to pay for.
