British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered a new blow on Thursday with a poll showing the opposition Conservatives 28 points ahead of Brown's Labour Party and on track to seize more than half of the vote.
The Ipsos MORI poll showed how much Britain's deepening economic woes are hurting Brown, and could fuel a Labour revolt against his 15-month-old premiership two days before party members gather in Manchester for their annual conference.
The poll found 52 percent of those who said they would definitely vote at the next election backed the Conservatives.
That was up from 48 percent last month and would give the Conservatives an overwhelming majority in parliament if repeated at the next general election, due by mid-2010.
Labour was unchanged at 24 percent while the Liberal Democrats dipped from 16 percent to 12.
Julia Clark, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said it was the highest Conservative score since the monthly tracker poll began in 1979. She said it was very unlikely Brown could recover from such a big deficit before the next election.
"The public are so fed up with Labour right now, they are sick with Gordon Brown," she told Reuters.
With the credit crunch taking a deepening toll on the economy, Labour members are increasingly questioning whether Brown is the right man to lead them. Brown faced down a revolt this week by Labour legislators demanding a leadership contest.
Data released on Wednesday showed unemployment jumped by its biggest amount in 16 years in August. Rising food and energy costs and slumping house prices have also stoked discontent with Labour, in power for 11 years.
ECONOMIC PESSIMISM
Late on Wednesday, British bank Lloyds TSB agreed to buy rival HBOS, a person familiar with the matter said, making it the latest troubled bank to be forced into the arms of a better-funded rival.
The Ipsos MORI poll found 69 percent of people were unhappy with the way Brown was doing his job and 70 percent thought Britain's economy would worsen in the next year.
Significantly, 36 percent thought the Conservatives had the best understanding of Britain's economic problems, compared with 27 percent for Labour.
Brown, finance minister for a decade before replacing Tony Blair as prime minister in June last year, used to promote his economic competence as his greatest strength.
Brown's authority was challenged on Tuesday when a junior minister resigned, urging an open debate over his leadership. Three other Labour legislators have been fired or resigned from government posts after demanding a leadership contest.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, regarded as a potential leadership contender, pointedly refused to condemn the rebels in an interview published on Thursday, although he said he did not agree with what they had done.
Purnell told the left-wing New Statesman magazine it would be "ridiculous to pretend that you can't complain when you're worried. I mean, I'm worried that we're 20 points behind."
The backing of at least 71 Labour members of parliament is needed to force a party leadership contest and only a dozen rebels have so far broken cover. The rebels hope the pressure will encourage cabinet members to persuade Brown to step aside.
