BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown prepares to travel to the G20 summit in Washington buoyed by another poll confirming a "Brown bounce" for Labour and a sharply declining Conservative lead.
According to the latest Populus survey - conducted after last week's dramatic interest rate cut by the Bank of England - the recently beleaguered Mr Brown now has a comfortable margin over Conservative leader David Cameron as "the best prime minister" to deal with Britain's economy in recession.
The prime minister's personal rating now stands at its highest since July last year while Labour - fresh from its triumph in the Glenrothes byelection - has cut the Conservative lead to just six points.
The poll for yesterday's London Times put the Conservatives on 41 per cent (down four points), with Labour on 35 per cent (up five points) and the Liberal Democrats up one point to 16 per cent. While ICM gave the Conservatives an 11-point lead last weekend, in Populus terms this was the lowest Conservative lead for months and the best showing for Labour since early this year.
The bad news for Labour, however, is that British voters still appear to favour Conservative leader David Cameron to lead the country after the next election.
Half those surveyed (52 per cent) said Mr Brown was the best prime minister "right now, to deal with Britain's economy in recession", as against just 32 per cent for Mr Cameron. Looking to the future, however, 42 per cent thought Mr Cameron would be better "to lead Britain forward after the next general election", as opposed to 35 per cent for Mr Brown.
Although sharp movement in opinion showed the Tory lead slipping, it remained above the all-important 40 per cent mark amid continuing pessimism about the prospects for the British economy.
The latest poll indicators came as Mr Brown and Mr Cameron clashed in a significant new battle over tax cuts as a counter to the imminent recession.
Mr Brown dismissed as "not serious" Mr Cameron's proposal to reduce insurance contributions for firms offering jobs to people who have been unemployed for more than three months.
The Conservatives accused Mr Brown of policy confusion and contradiction after his embrace of "unfunded" tax cuts - that is, cuts financed by borrowing rather than savings.
Anticipating tax cuts likely to be foreshadowed in the pre-budget report, shadow chancellor George Osborne said because British borrowing was so high "it is irresponsible to cut taxes without showing where the money is coming from".