Brown back to work but poll doom persists

AFP - Tuesday, August 19 12:38 pm

LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown headed back to work Tuesday after his summer break to a poll showing his party still trailing way behind in the polls, amid swirling talk of a leadership challenge.

The ICM survey in The Guardian newspaper put the main opposition Conservatives on 44 percent, Brown's governing Labour Party on 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 19 percent.

Though Labour's share of the vote has crept up in the last two months, the poll is nonetheless their worst August rating since the early 1980s, said the daily.

And a separate ICM poll showed that in a straight fight as to who would make the best prime minister, Foreign Secretary David Miliband would fare no better than Brown against Conservative leader David Cameron, who would beat them both by a 21 percent margin.

Miliband has denied media accusations that him spelling out this summer his vision for renewing the Labour government amounted to the start of a leadership challenge.

A general election must be called by May 2010 at the latest.

Commentators expect that Brown, who took over after Tony Blair stepped down in June 2007, will attempt to relaunch his premiership in the coming months with a slew of new policies and a cabinet reshuffle.

In the latest survey, voters were also asked to rate Brown against Miliband, and viewed the prime minister as more trustworthy, a more competent manager, and more willing to take a stand on tough issues.

However, the foreign secretary was perceived as "more on my wavelength" by those interviewed, and as having wider appeal by a margin of 38 percent to eight percent.

Labour "has spent the end of July and most of August hiding under the political covers," The Guardian's editorial said.

"The strategy seems to be based on the hope that if the government does nothing at all, the opinion polls will at least not get worse and perhaps may even get better.

"Things have indeed not got worse... But things have definitely not got better."

The poll "certainly scotches any idea that a new leader would transform Labour's chances", but "says that Mr Miliband would make a difference -- and for some Labour MPs it may be the difference between survival and oblivion."

Unlike Blair, who favoured holidaying in exotic destinations at the homes of the rich and famous, Brown settled for a "bucket and spade" break on England's east coast and time at home in Scotland.

ICM interviewed 1,002 adults at random for the state of the parties poll.

For the other poll, ICM surveyed 1,054 adults online, weighted to the vote intentions and demographic profile as the vote intentions data derived from the telephone poll.

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