Populus - 70% want Prescott to go now

Populus's latest poll for the Times suggests that 70% of respondents want John Prescott to resign or be sacked, including a majority (59%) of Labour voters. Only 23% of people think that Prescott should retain his position.

The poll also carries bad news for Tony Blair - the proportion of people thinking he should step down as Prime Minister within the next 18 months continues to rise, while his approval rating continues to decline. 62% of respondents now think Blair should resign either this year (49%) or next year (13%) - up from 56% last month and 50% in January.

The ratings for the party leaders aren't particularly flattering for any of them - Blair's approval rating on a scale of 1 to 10 is now down to 4.21, compared to 4.72 in May. This seems to be the lowest score Blair has recorded in a Populus poll, and the Times rather cruelly, but accurately, compares this to the sort of figures IDS was receiving prior to his removal as Tory leader. Ming Campbell's rating was 4.50, down from 4.70 and now lower than Charles Kennedy's rating after his confession of alcoholism. David Cameron received the highest rating on 4.98, but his figures are also in decline.

Finally there was little change in the voting intention figures. The topline numbers with changes from last month are CON 36% (-1), LAB 34 (nc), LDEM 19% (+1). While there is no significant change here, it does suggest that the sharp (and rather inexplicable) fall in the level of Lib Dem support recorded in the recent ICM poll was just a blip.