UK-Politics
Prime Minister Gordon Brown now leads the most unpopular Labour government in history, according to a new "poll of polls" published Thursday.

After just over a year in office, the public approval ratings of Brown's government have sunk below the worst achieved during Labour's darkest days in power in the 1960s and 70s, when former premiers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan were engulfed by economic crises.

Only 17 percent of people were found to now approve of the Brown government's record, while 70 percent disapprove. His own personal ratings with only 22 percent expressing satisfaction was also below the lowest suffer by his predecessor Tony Blair.

The Independent, publishing the poll, said the figures will "alarm already despondent Labour MPs because they call into question the Brown camp's claims that the Prime Minister can mount a successful political fightback if he steers through the current economic storm.

"It is probably safe to say that Labour is now in a larger electoral hole than any previous Labour government," said John Curtis, professor of politics at Strathclyde University in Scotland, who compiled the "poll of polls."
"Only John Major's Tory government ever had even less polling support. So much for New Labour's claim that it would avoid any repeat of Labour's record in the 1970s," Curtis said.