Labour gains on Tories in opinion poll, but no bounce for Brown

Oct 19, 2008, 8:00 GMT

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown pictured during a news conference at the end of the second day of the European Summit at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Thursday 16 November 2008. EPA/DIRK WAEM

London - Britain's ruling Labour party has gained on the opposition Conservatives in an opinion poll published Sunday, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown does not seem to have benefited from his handling of the global financial crisis.

In the ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday, 40 per cent of voters would choose the Conservative party led by David Cameron, while 31 per cent would vote for Labour and 16 per cent the Liberal Democrats.

Labour has gained four points since the last poll and is now less than 10 per cent behind the Tories for the first time since March.

However, 54 per cent of people questioned said they felt Brown's handling of the financial crisis had not improved Labour's chances of being re-elected.

A total of 58 per cent felt it was wrong to use taxpayers' money to bail out failing banks.

ComRes interviewed 1,005 adults on Wednesday and Thursday.

Brown said last week that Britain would inject 37 billion pounds (65 billion dollars) into ailing banks and posted guarantees of 250 billion pounds, a widely praised move that has been followed by other countries.

Sunday's News of the World newspaper published another poll, conducted by ICM, that did not see any improvement in Brown's election prospects after the banking bail-out.

Although 54 per cent thought Brown was handling the financial crisis well, only 13 per cent were more likely to vote Labour as a result, and 22 per cent were less likely to vote for Labour.

A total of 59 per cent of those polled said Brown's handling of the crisis would have no influence on how they would vote in a general election.

ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,041 adults by telephone between Wednesday and Friday.