Brown suffers new opinion poll blow

by Dave Keating | December 1, 2008 at 12:08 am

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It's looking as if the bump in popularity UK prime minister Gordon Brown experienced after his handling of the world financial crisis may have been temporary. After Brown took the lead in developing a bank bailout plan for the UK which other nations then copied, his polling numbers began going up and he narrowed the lead of his rival Conservative leader David Cameron. However now his numbers appear to be going down again.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown slipped behind the Conservatives in an opinion poll published on Sunday, a new blow to hopes that his economic stimulus plan would revive his political fortunes.

The Ipsos Mori poll for the Observer showed the Conservatives stretching their lead to 11 points.

An ICM survey for the Guardian on Saturday had given the Conservatives a 15-point lead.

The two polls are a sharp contrast with a YouGov poll on Wednesday which said Brown had actually cut the Conservative lead to just four points.

The Ipsos survey was conducted two days after the government announced plans for a 20 billion pound package to boost the economy, including a temporary cut in Value Added Tax (VAT) to 15 percent.

It put David Cameron's Conservative Party on 43 points, up three, and Brown's Labour Party down five to 32 points.