Brown's approval rating falls in Yougov poll

deleted:baalhadadFri 21/12/07 00:10

Apparently the monthly Telegraph poll tomorrow shows that 60% are dissatisfied with Brown's performance as Prime Minister. Anthony Well's UK Polling Report Blog points out that it took Tony Blair 9 years to reach -38%, his lowest by means of comparison.

The poll was taken before the announcement of the Lib Dem leadership result, yet shows a slight revival for the Liberal Democrats. The figures are as follows:

CON 43% (-2), LAB 31% (-1), LDEM 16% (+2)

I can't find the Telegraph article yet, so for now I'll just link to the UK Polling Report blog.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/1088

deleted:baalhadadFri 21/12/07 00:15

Found it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/21/npoll121.xml

From The Daily Telegraph

Poll puts Tories 12 points ahead of Labour

Gordon Brown's personal approval rating has slumped to an all-time low as a Daily Telegraph opinion poll today shows that Labour would lose 100 MPs if an election was held now.

The YouGov poll indicates that the Conservatives go into the new year with a 12-point lead over Labour.
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In an election, the poll result would lead to David Cameron winning a "workable majority" in the Commons.

The findings - which follow the Northern Rock crisis and the lost child benefits record scandal - underlines the reversal in Mr Brown's fortunes and the loss of public faith in him as Prime Minister.

Sixty per cent of people are now "dissatisfied" with Mr Brown as Prime Minister compared to 27 per cent in July and 48 per cent in October. Only 24 per cent of those polled say they are "satisfied" with the job he has done during his first six months in office.

Overall, 14 per cent rate his performance as "very good or good" but 51 per cent say he has been "poor or very poor".

In contrast, David Cameron's personal approval ratings have hit a record high, with 47 per cent of those polled saying he is "proving a good leader".

There are also signs of a Liberal Democrat revival following the election of Nick Clegg as leader on Tuesday.

The poll, conducted between Monday and Wednesday, found 16 per cent of people would vote Lib Dem, compared to 11 per cent in October.

The Government's refusal to backdate the increase in police pay attracted particular scorn.

Fifty-eight per cent of those questioned believe it was wrong and only 13 per cent of the public believe Jacqui Smith is "doing a good job" as Home Secretary.

Senior Labour backbenchers are alarmed at the Government's standing in the polls.

Charles Clarke, the former home secretary, this week became one of the first to break cover and criticise Mr Brown's leadership.

Last night, Frank Field, a former minister, said that media coverage of the Government was "too depressing for words".

He added: "The Prime Minister should use Christmas to think how it can be different in the new year.

"He has a private side which is very attractive which hasn't come out in public. If people saw there was an attractive side to his character, he would start to relax politically."

Denis MacShane, another former minister, said: "Everybody accepts that we have gone through a very, very rough three months. We should have steered away from the early election and the police pay row.

"But the basic Labour product remains good - we just need to rethink our marketing division. We were lulled into a false sense of security in the summer."

Mr Brown's personal ratings are at roughly the levels of Tony Blair's during the last three years of his premiership when he was regarded as an electoral liability.

Mr Cameron and George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, arrive back from a high-profile trip to China this morning buoyed by their success in the polls.

Mr Osborne said there was no room for complacency. But he added: "We enter the Christmas period in good shape."

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I might add that I misread the statement regarding Brown being more unpopular than Blair. He isn't. My above statement was misleading in this regard.

zerocrop2000Fri 21/12/07 03:03

Well, YouGov is well documented to be very unreliable. So I would only be interested in seeing comparisons with previous YouGov polls, which were presumably equally unreliable.

I'm not saying that Browns ratings are not bad, its just that YouGov is not the way to measure it.

deleted:baalhadadFri 21/12/07 03:13

quoting > "Well, YouGov is well documented to be very unreliable. So I would only be interested in seeing comparisons with previous YouGov polls, which were presumably equally unreliable.

I'm not saying that Browns ratings are not bad, its just that YouGov is not the way to measure it."

I agree, Yougov aren't the best polling company out there. There last poll was only a few days ago, so I doubt much new information can be gleaned from this one, though it does ask the specific approval question. UK Polling report offer a tracking graph of the results for each party in Yougov polls: http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/voting-intention/yougov/

Also, compared to the last Yougov poll listed here, Brown's ratings have fallen by 26% in the last month, which is perhaps unsurprising:

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/leaders/brown/