Fresh blow for Gordon Brown
2008-06-10 11:23
London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered a fresh blow on Tuesday as a new opinion poll showed his ruling Labour Party falling close to its all-time lows.
According to the Populus survey for The Times, backing for Labour dropped four percentage points from last month to 25%, while support for the main opposition Conservatives rose five points to 45%.
The smaller opposition Liberal Democrats rose one point to 20%.
Labour's lowest-ever rating since polling began in Britain in the 1940s is 23%, a level to which it fell late last month in a separate survey.
The poll also put Brown's own personal leader ratings at just 3.9 on a scale of one to 10, the lowest such rating for any major political party leader in Britain since the ratings were introduced in 2003.
Conservative leader David Cameron, meanwhile, had a rating of 5.25.
The government's only consolation from the poll will be that nearly three-quarters of respondents backed plans to extend the amount of time terror suspects can be detained by police without charge from 28 days to 42 days.
The controversial proposals will go before a House of Commons vote on Wednesday.
The results of the poll come after Labour suffered a crushing by-election defeat as well as heavy losses in local council elections last month.
Populus questioned 1 508 voters between June 6 and 8 for the poll.