Tories extend poll lead over Labour in UK

by Dave Keating | January 26, 2009 at 01:51 am

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Though UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown had narrowed the spread between his party's poll numbers and those of the rival Conservative Party in recent months as the financial crisis began, a new poll shows that narrowing has been reversed, and the Conservatives are once again gainin in their lead over Labour.

The ComRes survey for The Independent will be seen as a strong indication of the ending of the "Brown bounce" which saw Labour slash the Tory lead in the autumn amid a flurry of major Government announcements to tackle the downturn.

And it will add weight to those within Labour arguing that Mr Brown should not go to the country this year, but should put off a General Election until the last possible moment in 2010.

Just one-third of those taking part (33pc) said that the Government had put in place the right measures to combat the recession against 58pc who said it had not, while 55pc said Mr Brown's flagship fiscal stimulus policy of cutting VAT was "foolish", against 39pc who disagreed.