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Brits want Blair to quit - poll
12/02/2006 08:04 - (SA)
London - Britain's governing Labour Party would enjoy a six-point lead on the main opposition Conservatives if Gordon Brown were to become its leader, a poll for the Sunday Times newspaper indicated.
41% of respondents to the YouGov survey said they wanted to see Prime Minister Tony Blair step down this year in favour of his chancellor of the exchequer.
If Brown was at the helm, according to the poll, Labour's popularity rating with voters would stand at 43%, compared with 37% under the Tories' new leader David Cameron.
Labour, re-elected to a third straight term last year, suffered a blow last week when one of its strongholds in Scotland fell to the smaller opposition Labour Democrats in a by-election.
Blair, in office since 1997, has said that this would be his last term as prime minister, with Brown - has longtime rival within Labour - widely seen as his heir apparent.
Brown is to make a keynote speech on terrorism - not usually a topic for a finance minister to address head-on - in London on Monday, ahead of key votes in parliament on legislation dealing with terrorism and identity cards.
Speaking with the Observer newspaper, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, a key ally of the prime minister, said Blair and Brown now were effectively running Britain as "a dual premiership".
"That's what Tony would always want, what Gordon should do," he said. "To be a great great leader, that requires (Brown) to lead. He has to come out and make the speeches, make the arguments."
Labour's long-time lead in the opinion polls has been sagging since Cameron became the new Conservative leader late last year and promptly began to pull the party towards the political centre in a bid to appeal to more voters.
- AFP
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