Poll shows govt still lags behind Tories
Labour has knocked four points off the Conservative party’s lead but still trail by eight per cent in an opinion poll out today.
The Daily Telegraph/YouGov survey put Gordon Brown’s Labour on 33 per cent and the Tories on 41 per cent, leaving the prime minister still struggling to win public support.
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats are placed on 16 per cent, suggesting new leader Nick Clegg has a long way to go to catch up with his party’s showing in the 2005 election.
A majority judged the government’s performance on three key areas to be ‘poor’ or ‘awful’, highlighting Mr Brown’s difficult period since last autumn’s party conference season.
The government’s attitude to the impending economic downturn, on Northern Rock and on dealing with street crime attracted a majority of negative responses.
Worst of all was the government’s performance on data security, with 88 per cent saying it had been poor or awful following a series of personal information losses. HM Revenue and Customs mislaid 25 million child benefit claimants’ details last November.
As a result of all these assessments of the government’s record are now firmly negative. Only 23 per cent expressed support while 61 per cent did not.
Mr Brown is also losing the battle of personalities against opposition head David Cameron. Thirty-one per cent believe the Conservative leader will also be the best leader for Britain, compared to 27 per cent backing the prime minister in that role.
