News is just coming through of a Populus poll for the Times taken in the wake of Monday’s PBR statement. A voting intention question was not asked but the pollster weighted the sample by past votes which makes it politically representative.

The findings are a marked contrast with the Telegraph’s YouGov poll that was carried out on Monday evening and Tuesday. It is a real pity that there are no voting numbers.

Peter Riddell reports in the Times: “Support for Gordon Brown as the right leader to deal with the recession has fallen sharply over the past fortnight, a Populus poll for The Times has found. It shows that only just over a third of British voters think the Government’s measures to boost the economy will make things better in either the short or long term.

Just as many people think that the package announced on Monday by Alistair Darling will make no real difference to the economy either way. However, fewer than a fifth believe the measures will make things worse in the short term, over the next few months, while a quarter say they will make things worse over the long-term period of the next few years.

Since the last Populus poll on November 7 to 9, Mr Brown has dropped sharply as the best leader “right now, to deal with Britain’s economy in recession”, from 52 to 42 per cent, with a big fall among the middle classes. But he is still ahead of David Cameron, on 36 per cent, up four points. Meanwhile, Mr Cameron is still ahead, by 41 to 33 per cent, as the preferred leader to take Britain forward after the next general election.”

It’s believed that an ICM poll might also be coming out tonight.

Mike Smithson