Almost half of Labour members want Brown to quit

Anthony Wells

— 1 min read
Share

YouGov have conducted a poll of Labour party members that shows half of Labour's own members want Gordon Brown to go, and Alan Johnson is the leading candidate to succeed him. It was conducted on Friday and Saturday, so after James Purnell's resignation and the extent of Labour's defeat in the local elections was becoming clear.

As might be expected, Labour's own party members were broadly positive about the performance of nearly all the government's ministers YouGov asked about. 75% approved of Alan Johnson's performance, 70% David Miliband's, 65% Lord Mandleson's, 61% Alistair Darling's and 61% Harriet Harman's. The only cabinet ministers asked about who got negative ratings were two of those who have just left - Jacqui Smith, whom 63% of Labour party members thought had been doing badly, and James Purnell, 50% of whom thought had been doing badly (the survey was conducted after he resigned). For Gordon Brown himself, 54% thought he was doing well, lower than all the surviving cabinet members YouGov asked about. 44% of his own party thought he was doing a bad job.

Opinions of Brown amongst his own party members were mediocre: 40% thought he was indecisive, 66% thought he was bad at communicating ideas, 41% thought he was weak. Only 25% of Labour members said he had handled the MPs's expenses crisis better than the other leaders.

Asked about Brown's future, 21% of party members think he should resign immediately, a further 26% think he should resign prior to the next election. Despite this, there was little sympathy for James Purnell's attempt to precipitate Brown's removal - 68% said he was wrong to do so, with 22% agreeing with his actions. 49% of Labour members did, however, say that Brown should go if 70 MPs signed a letter asking him to resign.

Should Brown go, Alan Johnson is the leading contender amongst Labour party members to replace him. 35% of them backed Johnson, leading David Miliband on 12%, Harriet Harman on 8%, Jon Cruddas on 7% and Ed Balls on 3%.

Full tables are here.

Read more