More poll pain for British finance minister Brown

BRITAIN: British finance minister Gordon Brown's standing in the public's eye has worsened in the past month and Britons prefer both Prime Minister Tony Blair and the leader of the opposition over Brown, a poll published on Monday showed.

The results come after Blair declined to publicly back Brown the odds on favourite to replace the prime minister as his successor on the opening day of the annual Labour Party conference on Sunday.

Of the 1,734 people surveyed by YouGov for The Daily Telegraph, 27 percent chose Gordon Brown as their preference for prime minister when choosing between the finance minister and Blair, while 32 percent chose Blair. That compares to 31 percent for Brown and 30 percent for Blair in a February poll by YouGov.

Similarly, just 25 percent endorsed Brown when choosing between him, the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party David Cameron, and Menzies Campbell, the leader of the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats. Thirty percent backed Cameron.

Labour's 22-point lead at the May 2005 general election over the topic of which party would better manage the economy also narrowed to just one point particularly damaging to Brown, whose brief is the economy. Some 44 percent also said Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown wouldn't make a good prime minister, compared to 33 percent earlier this year.

Labour's support, meanwhile, was unchanged from a month ago at 31 percent, while the Conservatives held steady at 38 percent. The Liberal Democrats were also unchanged at 18 percent.

The chancellor has been hit hard in the polls after it was alleged earlier this month that he was behind plots to force Blair to step down from office, a charge he denied.

Monday's poll largely mirrors another one from last week in which Brown was pitted against Cameron in nine head-to-head survey questions Cameron won out in eight of the contests.

Meanwhile Finance minister Gordon Brown will stake his claim to be Britain's next prime minister saying the ruling Labour Party must adapt to confront the challenges of the next decade.

Brown's speech to the Labour Party's annual conference on Monday is seen as crucial to re-establishing his credentials to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair, after a Labour revolt against Blair led to the questioning of Brown's fitness for the job.

In his speech, Brown will make clear that he would keep "New Labour" as a reformist, centrist party and prevent it slipping back to old left-wing policies.

"The next 10 years will be even more demanding. Because the challenges are quite different, the programme for governing will be different, and as the tasks of government change, the way we govern must change too, not just new policies but a new politics too," Brown will say, according to excerpts of his speech released on Sunday night.

"New Labour will never retreat but positively entrench our position in the centre ground in the mainstream as the party of reform."

Earlier British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged his Labour Party on Sunday to stop squabbling over who will succeed him and focus on policy as Labour began its last annual conference with Blair in charge.

Despite his pleas, the frenzy over the leadership grew as Blair declined to name his exit date or echo an earlier endorsement of finance minister Gordon Brown as his successor. "What I want to do this week is say to the party: 'We have had a difficult time recently. Go back, focus on the public, the public's concerns and things that really worry people'," Blair told the BBC's "Sunday AM" programme.

London, Monday, AFP, Reuters