Communicate Research Poll on Clarke vs Brown

There is a new Communicate Research poll in the Indy on Sunday - just one question, a “forced choice” between a Clarke-led Conservative party and a Brown-led Labour party. 44% of respondents went for Labour, while 25% went for the Tories.

In the Indy on Sunday’s report John Rentoul compares the poll to a YouGov one in the week of the general election which asked a similar forced choice between a Blair led Labour government (52%) and a Howard led Tory government (35%). Once you take account of the different levels of don’t knows in the two polls, this does indeed suggest that Clarke would do slightly worse against Brown than Howard did against Blair. Whether that says more about Clarke/Howard or Brown/Blair is a different matter.