Conservatives could win 12 West Midlands seats based on a new opinion poll which gave the Tories their strongest sustained lead over Labour in 14 years.
The survey put David Cameron's party eight points ahead of Labour at the end of his first year as Tory leader.
The result is the best the Tories have enjoyed since 1992. If it was reflected in a General Election, Conservatives could expect to win seats including Edgbaston and Solihull.
The survey, by ICM, put the Conservatives on 40 per cent of the vote, with Labour on 32 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 18 per cent.
Comparisons with recent polls by the same company suggest the Labour vote has held steady despite Mr Blair being questioned by police investigating the distribution of peerages.
However support for the Liberal Democrats appears to have fallen, with voters defecting to the Tories.
The result is in keeping with the trend since Mr Cameron took over in December last year.
Since then the Conservatives have averaged 37 per cent in ICM series polls, and Labour has averaged 33 per cent.
But the boost for the Tories at the expense of the Lib Dems suggests Mr Cameron's attempts to appeal to the middle ground may be starting to pay off.
The poll results also suggest there is a core Labour vote of around 33 per cent which will stick with the party in all circumstances.
If voters in a real election behaved as the poll suggests, the Conservatives would be the largest party in the House of Commons but would be unlikely to win an overall majority of seats.
Senior Labour MPs who could be at risk include Jacqui Smith, the Labour Chief Whip, who represents Redditch, and Environment Minister Ian Pearson, MP for Dudley South.
The Conservatives could also expect to take Birmingham Edgbaston from Gisela Stuart, Burton from Janet Dean, Halesowen from Sylvia Heal, Stafford from David Kidney, Stourbridge from Lynda Waltho, Tamworth from Brian Jenkins, Wolverhampton South West from Rob Marris and Worcester from Michael Foster.
The Tories could also take Solihull (Lorely Burt) and Hereford (Paul Keetch) from the Liberal Democrats.
However Labour will be hoping for a boost once Tony Blair steps down and a new leader such as Gordon Brown is appointed. Mr Cameron and his allies will also be aware that incumbent Governments always tend to lose support mid-term and regain at least some of it once an election is called.
As an example, in 1990 a MORI poll showed Labour on 50 per cent compared with the Tories on 35 per cent, but the Conservatives appointed a new leader and went on to win a General Election.
MP Michael Fabricant (Con Lichfield) said: "As with all single polls, the poll should be treated with caution though it does reflect an underlying trend over the last few months.
"Of course, it cannot show the effects of a change of Prime Minister next year, which is likely to assist Labour for an unknown period, nor the effect of Conservatives announcing spending and other policies closer to a likely General Election date, which is likely to give them a major bounce."
The ICM poll also found a growing proportion of the public believe the Conservatives are on course to win the next election.
About 37 per cent now think the party will succeed when a vote is called, compared with 19 per cent in 2002. Only a hard-core 12 per cent of voters still said the Conservatives would never win again, according to the poll.n ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,006 adults by telephone between December 15 and 17.
