Brown’s rating falls as threat of terror plan revolt grows
Prime minister Gordon Brown is facing a cabinet revolt over controversial plans to extend the limit terror suspects can be held without charge from 28 to 42 days.
Mr Brown also suffered a fresh set-back in the polls today with the Sunday Times claiming his personal popularity rating has fallen further and faster than any other British prime minister since polling began in the 1930s.
Reports claim that Mr Brown’s plans to push through legislation extending the maximum period terrorism suspects can be held without being charged is disrupting his cabinet.
Justice secretary Jack Straw is alleged to have doubts about the policy, which critics say will lead to miscarriages of justice.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the House of Commons home affairs committee, claimed government ministers did not have enough support in parliament to pass the measures.
However, Health secretary Alan Johnson told the BBC that he was “absolutely certain” that Mr Brown and his government would be able to get the policy through parliament.
There was further bad news for Mr Brown today with a new poll showing his popularity had fallen dramatically since he took over from Tony Blair.
The latest YouGov poll showed the Conservative party currently holding 44 per cent of the national vote, with Labour on 28 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent.
More alarming for Downing Street though was Mr Brown’s personal rating which has fallen from plus 48 last August to minus 37 on a zero midpoint scale.
“The collapse is the most dramatic of any modern-day prime minister, worse even than Neville Chamberlain who in 1940 dropped from plus 21 to minus 27 after Hitler’s invasion of Norway,” the Sunday Times said.
