Poll puts Labour 11 points behind

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour Party is 11 points behind opposition Conservatives and the majority of his own supporters want him to stand down, an opinion poll in The Times showed on Wednesday.

The poll by Populus -- the first since Brown suffered a heavy defeat in local elections on Thursday -- put support for Labour at 29 percent, down four points since last month.

David Cameron's Conservatives were on 40 percent, up one point since last month, and the Liberal Democrats were up two points on 19 percent.

Potentially most worrying for Brown was what the poll showed about his leadership rating, which was indicated on a 0 to 10 scale. Brown's score fell to 4.08 in May from 4.5 a month earlier, and compares with a rating for Cameron which rose to 5.36 in May from 4.96 in April.

And among Labour voters, 55 percent said their party would be more likely to win the next election if Brown resigned "to make way for a younger, fresher, more charismatic alternative", the poll showed.

Populus conducted the poll between May 2 and May 4, just after Brown's Labour party lost heavily in local elections in England and Wales and was beaten into third place in the overall vote behind the leading Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Charles Dick)

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