Brown worst British PM since World War II: poll

LONDON (AFP) - Two separate polls published Sunday made grim reading for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, rating him the worst premier since World War II and suggesting a majority of his ruling Labour Party's supporters would be more likely to vote for it if he were replaced.

The ICM poll for the Sunday Express put Labour 16 percentage points behind the main Opposition Conservatives, while the BPIX poll for the Mail on Sunday had the government a whopping 23 points behind the Tories.

According to the Sunday Express/ICM survey, 57 per cent of Labour supporters would be more likely to vote for the party if Brown were ousted, compared to 25 per cent who said they would be less likely to do so.

Overall, however, 40 per cent of all respondents said they would be less likely to vote for Labour if Brown were replaced, while 38 per cent said they would be more likely to cast their ballot for the government in their scenario.

It put backing for Labour at 29pc, while the Conservatives were on 45pc and the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats were at 16pc.

The Mail on Sunday/BPIX survey, meanwhile, showed nearly a third of respondents rated Brown the worst British prime minister since World War II, with John Major in second place.

In that poll, Labour was at 24pc, while 47pc of voters supported the Conservatives and 16pc chose the Liberal Democrats. The frenzy surrounding Brown's future has refused to die down since last month's by-election defeat in the Glasgow East constituency, until then a Labour stronghold, and an anonymous briefing campaign was well under way soon after.

ICM questioned 1,001 adults between July 30 and August 1, while BPIX surveyed 2,194 people between July 31 and August 2. Meanwhile, former British prime minister Tony Blair sharply criticised his successor Gordon Brown in a memo, accusing him of having "dissed our own record", according to the Mail on Sunday.

The report comes with Brown and his ruling Labour Party languishing in the opinion polls, having suffered defeats in three by-elections in as many months, as observers predict the premier has until the party's annual conference in September to launch a fightback.

In the memo, which the weekly said was written last autumn, Blair attacked what he described as a "lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy."

"Instead of saying we are building on the achievements, confronting new challenges, we joined in the attack on our own ten years - a fatal mistake. We junked the TB (Tony Blair) policy agenda but had nothing to put in its place."

According to the Mail on Sunday, which said it obtained the memo, Blair also wrote that Conservative leader David Cameron "was in trouble long before TB left", though his party is now as many as 20 percentage points ahead of Labour in various polls.

The weekly said a watered-down version of the memo was sent to Brown himself, but did not say who the original draft was addressed to.

A spokesman for Blair's office declined to comment on whether or not the memo was genuine, only saying that the ex-premier "continues to be 100pc supportive of Gordon Brown and the government."

In the News of the World weekly tabloid on Sunday, meanwhile, Finance Minister Alistair Darling, Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman and Skills Secretary John Denham all said they supported Brown.