'Brown's crisis management fails to improve fortunes'

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the financial crisis may have won him friends abroad but a poll shows he still has his work cut out to persuade the public at home.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the financial crisis may have won him friends abroad but a poll shows he still has his work cut out to persuade the public at home.

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A new ICM opinion poll published on Monday for the Guardian newspaper finds the opposition Conservatives remain 12 points ahead of Brown's ruling Labour party, on 42 points and 30 points respectively, unchanged since a survey last month.

There was general approval of Brown's response to the global crisis -- 61 per cent said he has done well and just 33 per cent think he has done badly.

But asked whether this response makes them more or less likely to vote Labour at the next election, due by 2010, just 13 per cent say more, 27 per cent say less and 60 per cent say it has made little difference.

The results are bad news after a weekend poll suggested Labour had cut the Conservatives' lead to nine, on 31 per cent to the Tories' 40 per cent.