Poll finds Brown would lose out to Cameron

Friday, 22 September 2006 12:00 AM

Gordon Brown would come off the worse in a general election against David Cameron, a new poll suggests.

The chancellor, who is widely expected to succeed Tony Blair, loses out to the Conservative leader on key issues such as honesty, arrogance and loyalty.

The ICM poll for The Guardian comes ahead of next week's Labour party conference in Manchester, and is published as a separate survey of Labour voters by the T&G union reveals widespread support for a change in the party's direction.

The Guardian poll finds Labour's overall support would drop by one percentage point if Mr Brown were leader, from 32 to 31 per cent. By contrast, support for the Conservatives would go up from 36 to 37 per cent.

Mr Brown has been accused of orchestrating the dissent over Tony Blair's leadership in recent weeks, and this perception appears to have stuck among voters.

Thirty-five per cent of respondents said Mr Brown was more likely to stab a colleague in the back than Mr Cameron, compared to 12 per cent who named the Tory leader.

Crucially, when asked who had the most potential as a prime minister, 35 per cent of voters backed Mr Cameron compared to 32 per cent who backed Mr Brown.

On honesty, Mr Brown is eight percentage points below Mr Cameron; on arrogance, he is 21 points ahead. However, voters trust the chancellor to make difficult decisions, backing him 32 per cent compared to Mr Cameron's 25 per cent.

At this week's cabinet meeting, ministers expressed concern that Labour's standing in the polls would have been severely damaged by the infighting of the past few weeks.

Today's poll reveals that 69 per cent of voters now believe the party is now more divided than the Conservative party, and 64 per cent believe it has run out of ideas.

Meanwhile, the T&G survey, also conducted by ICM, reveals a widespread desire for change. Almost all (95 per cent) of the 400 Labour members questioned wanted more action for working people, and 91 per cent wanted more support for manufacturing.

On the divisive issue of Mr Blair's market-based reforms of the health and education systems, 60 per cent also say they want an end to further involvement of the private sector.

Reports this morning suggest Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) could back a motion tabled by the Unison union condemning the privatisation of the NHS.

Tags:
• conservatives
,
• labour
,
• party politics