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Brown not trusted on economy
14/04/2008 12:44 - (SA)
London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is less trusted than any other major western European leader in being able to steer his country through the global financial crisis, a Financial Times poll showed on Monday.
It was the latest blow to Brown's reputation for economic competence as the British housing market faces a sharp downturn amid the international turbulence.
Concern over the impact of the credit crunch is growing and mortgage lenders called on Friday on the Bank of England to increase efforts to ease the impact, warning home loans could halve from last year's levels.
In the Financial Times/Harris poll, 68% of Britons said they were "not confident at all" in the ability of the Brown government to steer the country safely through tough times.
In contrast voter confidence in their government's abilities to ride out the financial crisis was 52% in Germany, 51% in the US, 50% in France, 43% in Italy and 36% in Spain.
"Gordon Brown has forfeited his trump card," the Financial Times concluded. "The mantle of economic competence, the ruling Labour Party's most potent electoral weapon, is up for grabs."
Biggest drop in personal ratings
A Sunday Times poll showed that Brown, widely admired for steering Britain through a period of uninterrupted growth in his decade as finance minister, suffered the biggest drop in personal ratings since polls were first taken in the 1930s.
The YouGov poll in the paper showed the resurgent Conservatives on 44% with Labour on 28% and the centrist Liberal Democrats on 17%.
But the biggest blow was delivered in the soundings on Brown's personal ratings - they have fallen from plus 48 last August to minus 37.
"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 paper said.
Brown, who took over from Tony Blair in June last year after a decade waiting in the wings, does not have to call a national election until 2010 so time is on his side if the global economy recovers.
The British leader is holding a breakfast meeting with leading executives and bankers from London's financial district on Tuesday before flying off to the US where the global downturn is bound to dominate discussions.
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