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Brown on rack as UK Conservatives seizes huge poll lead
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-18 14:13 LONDON -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered a new blow on Thursday with a poll showing the opposition Conservatives 28 points ahead of Brown's Labour Party and on track to seize more than half of the vote.
The Ipsos MORI poll showed how much Britain's deepening economic woes are hurting Brown, and could fuel a Labour revolt against his 15-month-old premiership two days before party members gather in Manchester for their annual conference. The poll found 52 percent of those who said they would definitely vote at the next election backed the Conservatives. That was up from 48 percent last month and would give the Conservatives an overwhelming majority in parliament if repeated at the next general election, due by mid-2010. Labour was unchanged at 24 percent while the Liberal Democrats dipped from 16 percent to 12. Julia Clark, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said it was the highest Conservative score since the monthly tracker poll began in 1979. She said it was very unlikely Brown could recover from such a big deficit before the next election. "The public are so fed up with Labour right now, they are sick with Gordon Brown," she told Reuters. With the credit crunch taking a deepening toll on the economy, Labour members are increasingly questioning whether Brown is the right man to lead them. Brown faced down a revolt this week by Labour legislators demanding a leadership contest. Data released on Wednesday showed unemployment jumped by its biggest amount in 16 years in August. Rising food and energy costs and slumping house prices have also stoked discontent with Labour, in power for 11 years. Late on Wednesday, British bank Lloyds TSB agreed to buy rival HBOS, a person familiar with the matter said, making it the latest troubled bank to be forced into the arms of a better-funded rival. |
