Economic Confidence Continues to Fall

Ipsos's July Political Monitor, carried out by telephone between 18-20 July, shows the Conservative party on 47% and the Labour party on 27%. Over three quarters (77%) of the public are now dissatisfied with the way the Government is running the country, and seven in ten (72%) are dissatisfied with the way Gordon Brown is doing his job as Prime Minister.

Public confidence in the Prime Minister is low, and half agree with the statement "It's time for Gordon Brown to resign and hand over to someone else" (50%), while two in five disagree (39%). Just over a third (35%) agree that `Gordon Brown is doing a good job in difficult circumstances', while six in ten (58%) disagree.

Public satisfaction with the Conservative leader is much higher: half the population (50%) is satisfied with the way David Cameron is doing his job as leader of the Conservative Party. However, despite Cameron's popularity and the public's lack of confidence in Brown, they are not yet sure that it is time for Cameron and the Conservatives to form a Government: exactly equal numbers agree and disagree with the statement that 'David Cameron is ready to be the next Prime Minister' (44% each), and the public are also fairly divided on whether or not the Conservatives are ready to form the next Government, with two in five (41%) disagreeing and 46% agreeing.

Three quarters of people (75%) now believe that the general economic condition of the country will get worse over the next 12 months; a drop of six points since June and the lowest score Ipsos has recorded since it started asking this particular question in 1979.

• Download the July Political Monitor here
• Download the July tables here
• Download the July presentation here

Technical note

Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,016 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone on 18th-20th July 2008. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.

Where percentages do not sum to 100, this may be due to computer rounding, the exclusion of "don't know" categories, or multiple answers. An asterisk (*) denotes any value of less than half a per cent. Voting intention figures exclude those who say they would not vote, are undecided or refuse to name a party.