Poll finds drop in support for PM

Mr Tony Blair may have been voted Britain's best-dressed politician yesterday, but it seems that the Prime Minister's honeymoon…

Mr Tony Blair may have been voted Britain's best-dressed politician yesterday, but it seems that the Prime Minister's honeymoon with the British public may be over, Rachel Donnelly writes.

A "state of the nation" Guardian/ICM poll found that the public thinks Mr Blair is becoming increasingly arrogant, displays marginally more style than substance, and has less personality than a year ago.

However, the poll provided some welcome reading for the Labour government by showing it had managed to restore public confidence in the National Health Service.

The most alarming drop in public support for Mr Blair was confirmed by the fact that only 34 per cent of 1,178 voters polled believed he was "more honest than other politicians". The figure last year stood at 54 per cent.

READ MORE

The poll showed that Mr Blair's personality rating had fallen from 80 per cent to 60 per cent but this was not counter-balanced by an increase in support for the Tory leader, Mr William Hague. Some 29 per cent of people polled believed Mr Blair was arrogant, compared to 21 per cent last year.

In Maxim magazine's poll of readers, Mr Blair was the most highly-placed politician on the best-dressed list. The Prime Minister came in fourth.