British Chancellor of the Exchequer 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 him, a poll published yesterday showed.
The results come after Blair declined to publicly back Brown -- the favourite to replace the prime minister -- 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 Brown as their preference for prime minister when choosing between the finance minister and Blair, while 32 percent chose Blair.
That compared 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 opposition Liberal Democrats.
Thirty percent backed the Conservatives' 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 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.
Meanwhile, in a key test for both his and the Labour Party's future, Brown addressed grassroots members yesterday, with special attention being paid to how he and his ideas would be received.
Brown was to address the challenges Labour will likely be facing in the next decade.
By giving his speech, Brown was also seeking to dispel the "control freak" claims by arguing that power needed to be devolved away from central government, indicating a change in direction under his leadership.
Yet doubts persist about Brown's fitness to govern, and the speech was bound to be picked over as much for its content as how 55-year-old Brown was welcomed by the 12,000 or so delegates.
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