Fresh pressure on Brown as ratings continue to slide

The new poll shows the Tory leader's popularity surging

Sunday, 22, Jun 2008 12:00

A new poll puts the Conservatives 23 points ahead of Labour in the popularity ratings with 49 per cent of respondents favouring the Tories.

The poll published in the Mail on Sunday shows the present prime minister trailing David Cameron on a number of issues.

While 55 per cent of those polled believed that Mr Cameron had done a better than expected job, 85 per cent said the former chancellor's performance had been worse than expected.

Similarly twice as many people felt that the opposition leader represented British values better than the resident of number 10. A year ago, the same question on values showed a similar lead in favour of Mr Brown but he has suffered an alarming drop in popularity with 44 per cent of those polled now saying he should resign immediately.

Even more alarming for the current government, respondents also seem to prefer Tony Blair over Gordon Brown with 53 per cent saying they wished the former prime minister hadn't resigned to make way for the incumbent head of government.

The former chancellor's approval ratings suffered an early bounce over his performance in last year's floods and the optimism surrounding change at the top of government.

However, his polling figures soon started to drop after calling off an early general elections, the collapse of Northern Rock and a series of data scandals tarnished the government's image.