GORDON Brown is being urged to set out his long-term vision for the country after a poll gave the Tories a seven-point lead over Labour.

Lord Falconer, who quit the Cabinet alongside Tony Blair in June, warned the prime minister against allowing the government to `drift'.

With the Tories in their strongest position in a poll for 15 years, Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, said: "Making clear our vision is the challenge for the Labour Party now.

"Because if we rely on experience and our ability to handle crises and do not set out, in the coming months, our vision for the future of the UK - a vision which represents the progressive view of politics - then we will be offering drift not leadership, and the past not the future."

But Business Secretary John Hutton rejected suggestions that the prime minister lacked vision, saying: "We have a very clear vision. What will come through is New Labour's enduring set of visions. There has been no collapse and this is not the beginning of the end."

Health Minister and Bury South MP Ivan Lewis called for self-discipline in the Labour ranks.

He said: "We need unity behind our prime minister and we need to remember that we're Labourites, not Blairites or Brownites."

An ICM poll yesterday suggested that Tory leader David Cameron was now in a position to secure a Commons majority in a general election.

The poll put the Conservatives on 43 per cent and Labour on 36 per cent. It was the Tories' highest rating since 1992.