Gordon Brown-a change for the worse, says poll

Support for Conservative is at a 20-year high at 45 per cent, their highest rating since 1988, which could give party leader David Cameron a landslide victory as big as Labour’s win in 1997, with some 400 seats, The Guardian said.

According to the survey, Labour support has fallen two points to 25 per cent, the lowest recorded in the ICM polls, which was started in 1984.

Labour might be reduced to well under 200 MPs with many ministers set to lose their seats, it said.

Liberal Democrat support at 20 per cent is two points down but remains only five points behind Labour, the narrowest gap on record.

The figures record the dramatic decline in Labour fortunes since Brown took over a leader. A year ago, Labour had a four-point lead over the Tories in the June Guardian/ICM poll.

Voters think Brown has failed personally as prime minister. Asked to rate his performance on a scale of one to ten, voters gave Brown only 3.94 on average.

Almost a quarter, 23 per cent give him just one. The General Election is due in 2010.

The poll showed that 74 per cent of people think Brown has been a change for the worse compared with Tony Blair. Only 24 per cent say Labour has a chance of winning the next election while he is its leader.

The gloomy survey also finds that only one in four people believe he has a chance of winning the next election.

ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,000 adults aged 18 and over by telephone between June 20 and 22. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Brown has been rocked by a number of setbacks since he took over from Mr Blair a year ago. Last month Labour was pushed into third place in the local elections.

The party also embarrassingly lost the previously safe Labour seat of Crewe and Nantwich in a by election.