Labor heads are in the sand Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Senator Stephen Conroy / Pic: Jeremy Piper Source: The Daily Telegraph SENIOR Labor MPs have accused party officials of deliberately delaying polling key marginal seats over fears that the results would be so bad it could spark renewed questions over Julia Gillard's leadership. And they are accusing Communications Minister Stephen Conroy of being behind the strategy, in signs that a new factional brawl threatens to break out within the party before the election. A meeting of the federal election campaign committee on Friday was told that a decision on the next round of internal polling in key Victorian marginal seats would not be made for at least a month - after the last parliamentary sitting week. This is despite a request from senior MPs three months ago for polling to be done to gauge how dire the situation was in Victoria. Senior Labor figures have demanded that polling be done immediately in the seats of Isaacs, held by Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, Bruce, Corio, Holt and McEwan. Ssources revealed that a "robust" meeting was held in which some MPs demanded that polling be done immediately so they could know which seats were salvageable. They revealed that internal polling in all states other than NSW had been deliberately suppressed or delayed until after the last leadership challenge, to deny Kevin Rudd ammunition. NSW internal polling has revealed support was at record lows of between 25 per cent and 29 per cent on a primary vote basis, similar to the result that turfed Labor out of office. In Victoria, polling meant to be done three months ago has not been conducted, with some figures accusing factional leaders in Canberra of trying to delay the process to protect Ms Gillard from another challenge. Recent Liberal polling has revealed that the Coalition is now ahead in Mr Dreyfus's seat of Isaacs by 2 per cent. Labor also fears that Corangamite and Corio, centred around Geelong, are now lost along with Latrobe and Deakin. "There appears to be a mass outbreak of amnesia in the party," said one senior Labor source. It's now too late, had we known the situation in some of these seats, we may have been able to do something about saving them. Mr Conroy yesterday would not comment, claiming he had no knowledge of the issue. But one senior MP, representing a group of concerned caucus members, said the delay in polling was making MPs more nervous. "It would be good if they did some polling, so we knew exactly where we stand," said one MP. The Victorian ALP state secretary Noah Carroll would not comment on meetings of the campaign committee.