Few British voters trust Brown on finance

September 23, 2009 09:57:11 AM

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Most Britons think Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour Party is not telling the truth about the state of the recession-hit nation's finances, according to a poll Monday.

Just 14 percent of voters think government ministers are being honest about finances in Britain which is suffering large public debt under the weight of the recession, the ICM poll on the Guardian's website said.

Thirty-six percent believe the main opposition Conservatives, while 32 percent trust the Liberal Democratic Party, the poll for the newspaper said.

The poll comes amid a heated row over reducing public spending and whether political parties are being honest about the depth of the cuts needed and where the axe is likely to fall.

In a major speech last week, Brown vowed to cut public expenditure as he battled to avoid a general election meltdown next year at the hands of the Conservatives led by David Cameron.

The Conservatives have extended their overall lead over Labour in the latest poll to 17 points, up two to 43 percent since the last poll, compared to support for Labour which has risen one point to 26 percent.

The Liberal Democrats, currently holding their annual conference, are unchanged on 19 percent.

In more bad news for Brown, whose Labour has been in power since 1997, the poll found 28 percent of voters have a favourable impression of him, compared with 52 percent for Cameron.

ICM interviewed 1,001 adults over the phone between September 18-20 for the poll to appear in Tuesday's Guardian.