Home Secretary’s “positive impression” rating up 15% in eleven days

The latest YouGov BrandIndex data published on the UK Polling Report site shows a massive boost for the Home Secretary, John Reid (GREEN) since he came to prominence over his handling of the alleged terror plots.

As can be seen from the chart he is well ahead of his potential Labour leadership rival, Gordon Brown (BROWN) and now enjoys poll ratings ahead of the Tory leader, David Cameron (BLUE), whose figures continue to slip.

It should be noted that these are based on whether respondents have a “positive impression” of the named politician and are not the “good job – bad job” figures that YouGov has been providing PBC with over the past few weeks.

These are based on a five day rolling average of surveys of 600 people each day. The sample size in therefore 3,000.

Although these figures should be treated with great caution they are likely to have the effect of helping John Reid establish a position where he could challenge Gordon Brown.

What we really need are proper vote intention figures with Brown and Reid named alongside Cameron and Campbell. Let’s hope that ICM and Populus, due out in the next couple of weeks, will ask those questions.

My strong view is that if Reid is polling better on such a measure against the Chancellor then he would have a serious chance of challenging for the leadership. Labour wants a winner and will be influenced by the polls.

The challenge for Reid is maintaining this position because as many ex-Home Secretaries can vouch – the job is not normally good for a career.

In the betting the best Brown price has eased a touch to 0.46/1.

Mike Smithson