By IANS,
London : Support for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is dipping amid a loss of voter-confidence in his ability to turn the economy around and reports of a resurgent opposition Tory party, according to two opinion polls published Tuesday.
A Guardian-ICM poll, carried out after a second round of multi-billion pound bank bail-outs last week, showed only 31 percent of voters think that Brown’s high-profile battle to turn around the economy will work.
As many as 64 percent think it will either achieve nothing or even make the situation worse.
Even Labour supporters are doubtful: only 48 percent of people who voted for the ruling party in 2005 believe that the government’s measures will work.
According to the poll support for the opposition Conservative Party is up six points at 44 percent – only one point below its 25-year ICM high.
Labour is on 32 percent and the Liberal Democrats are on 16 percent.
A ComRES poll for The Independent showed an even bigger gap of 15 points, with Labour support at 28 percent, down six points from its December poll, and the Conservatives on 43 percent, up four points.
With Britain officially in a state of recession, Brown has sought to blame international factors for the country’s economic woes, declaring Monday, “The fragility of the global financial system must be addressed internationally.”
The Conservative Party blames Brown’s record as finance minister in the previous government led by Tony Blair, saying squandered savings meant he had to borrow heavily to bail out banks caught up in the credit crunch.