Labour lags way behind main rival, poll shows

London: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour party is lagging way behind its main rival the Conservative Party, an opinion poll showed on Sunday, dealing a blow to Brown as he approaches his first anniversary in office.

The BPIX poll for the Mail on Sunday newspaper showed Labour trailing 23 points behind the Conservatives - with support of 26 per cent for Brown's party versus 49 per cent for the opposition.

The poll, which surveyed 2,385 people between Wednesday and Friday last week, also found that 85 per cent of voters think Brown has performed worse since taking over as prime minister from Tony Blair last June than they had expected. Forty-four per cent think he should resign now.

Brown enjoyed a brief political "honeymoon" after he took over from Blair on June 27 last year, but has been battered by economic woes, industrial strife and government blunders in recent months.

Many analysts now believe that only a dramatic upturn in the economy could save him at the next election by May 2010.

Finance Minister Alistair Darling admitted that it had been a tough first year.

"We have had a difficult year, whether it's the economy or other political issues. I have always taken the view that we can turn this around," Darling said.