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Ed Miliband may be facing a leadership crisis, but a professor from the University of Essex has argued that Ed is only as unpopular as David Cameron and that the leadership panic is overblown.

Don't get us wrong...things aren't looking good for the leader of the opposition

Just 25% of people are satisfied that Miliband is doing a good job as leader of the opposition, according to Ipsos MORI. He is 13 percentage points behind the Prime Minister.

Miliband also trailed behind David Cameron in another poll carried out over the weekend by YouGov/The Sun.

It looks like many people don't have faith in him as a potential Prime Minister.

Which of these would make the best Prime Minister? YouGov/The Sun

But these polls don't necessarily reflect voters' true feelings

When you ask people who is the best leader the answers tends to be biased towards the incumbent, a point made by Essex academic Paul Whitely.

The better question, Mr Whitely argue, is to ask people to rate leaders out of 10 on a "likeability scale".

But why use "likeability"?

While some question whether likeability necessarily means "electability", Mr Whitely notes that is "closely associated with other desirable traits that a successful leader needs, such as being seen as competent, decisive, in touch with ordinary people and honest."

It is also, he says, "a powerful predictor of voting intentions and therefore a good guide to what people might do in the general election."

And Ed is just about as likeable as Dave

The issue isn't that voters dislike Ed Miliband, they dislike politicians in general.

When we specifically focus on likeability, the gap closes significantly. David Cameron is just a smidgen (0.3 points to be precise) above Miliband.

Most party leaders hover around the 3-5 mark. Out of ten. Which says more about the extent of our general apathy towards politicians than anything else.

The only question that matters is who will you vote for

As Nate Silver argues in his book "The Signal and the Noise" the only real gauge for voting intention is the question: "who will you vote for?"

And when this question is asked Labour is still ahead. Not by a lot - it ranges from one or two points in the last few weeks - but it's still ahead.