World | UK
Support for Brown plummets as expenses scandal bites
Support for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party has plunged by 10 points and voters angry about an expenses scandal are rapidly losing faith in politicians, opinion polls showed on Tuesday.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:00 June 2, 2009
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrives at Islington South & Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry's office in London on Tuesday. Support for Brown's Labour Party has plunged by 10 points since the claims scandal broke out.
London: Support for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party has plunged by 10 points and voters angry about an expenses scandal are rapidly losing faith in politicians, opinion polls showed on Tuesday.
Brown's Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon became the latest high-flying politician to agree to pay back money after being accused of claiming allowances on two homes at the same time. He said he would refund £384 (Dh2,320).
Finance minister Alistair Darling on Monday apologised and agreed to repay £350 after overclaiming expenses.
An Ipsos MORI poll published in the Sun newspaper put Labour support at just 18 per cent, level with Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats. It showed the gulf between Brown's party and its main rival the Conservatives widening to 22 points.
A second opinion poll in the Independent showed all the major parties suffering loss of support from a scandal over lawmakers' expenses.
Since it erupted several weeks ago, more than a dozen members of parliament - including another three Labour members - have been forced to announce they are stepping down at the next general election.
Brown, struggling to lead Britain through its worst recession in a generation, is already facing a rout in European and local elections tomorrow.
The prime minister is expected to reshuffle key ministerial posts next week in an attempt to reassert his authority before a parliamentary election he must call within a year.
Hoon and Darling may be in the firing line. Some Brown aides say they are urging him to put schools minister Ed Balls, a key Brown ally, into the finance ministry.
Brown insisted on Monday that he would not step down despite dismal opinion polls ratings. He promised constitutional reform, saying he had "a duty, before we go to an election, to show the country the system has been cleaned up".
The ComRes poll for the Independent put support for smaller political parties - including the Green party, the far-right British National Party and the UK Independence Party, at 30 per cent, up 18 points from the previous month. Those three parties are not represented in the British parliament.
Labour got 22 per cent support in the ComRes poll, while David Cameron's Conservatives registered 30 per cent support and the Lib Dems polled 18 per cent.
Voters are furious many MPs have milked the expenses system at a time when many people are having to scrimp. Three more Labour lawmaker - David Chaytor, former health minister Patricia Hewitt and junior minister Beverley Hughes, said yesterday they would not stand at the next election.
Hewitt and Hughes said their decisions were nothing to do with the expenses row, but Chaytor, who was suspended by the Labour Party pending an inquiry into allegations he claimed £13,000 of taxpayers' money for a mortgage he had already paid off, said he wanted to explain his "errors".
A poll published by the BBC showed almost half of British voters think most members of parliament are corrupt.
News Editor's choice
-
Ukraine leaders fight over Russian language
Violence erupts in Ukraine parliament over a bill to allow use of Russian language in courts, hospitals
-
CBSE: 100% success in many UAE schools
6,000 students from 53 schools meet grade expectations in examinations
-
'I can’t believe he is not going to come back'
Seventeen-year-old boy went missing in Dubai during a visit from Pakistan
