Scandal hits Brown election hope

THE Smeargate scandal has dealt a hammer blow to Gordon Brown's hopes of winning the next election.

An exclusive Ipsos Mori poll for the News of the World shows almost 40 per cent of voters-and one in four Labour supporters-say the affair has dented their trust in the government.

And most say it will affect how they vote in the next general election.

Mori's head of political research Julia Clark said: "Although we know trust in politicians is low to begin with, it appears that this incident has reinforced the public's distrust of the government."

Mr Brown's leadership of the successful G20 summit on the world economy gave him a temporary boost after trailing the Tories in the polls for months.

But trust in Labour was already low with the country in the economic doldrums and MPs caught up in rows over their expenses.

Now the G20 lift was destroyed last week when the News of the World revealed details of Labour aides' plans to launch a personal smear campaign against top Tories.

Thirty-seven per cent of voters say they trust the Labour government less because of the plot.

That is compounded by the number of people who say it will affect how they vote at the next election.

More than half-54 per cent-say such issues are important in deciding who they will vote for and 41 per cent of Labour supporters say it will affect how they vote. Our poll reveals 39 per cent blame Brown's leadership style for the Smeargate scandal-including more than half of Tories-even though the PM insists he had nothing to do with it.

And the PM gets a particularly rough ride from men- with almost half blaming him.

Older voters in particular blame Brown-and they are more likely to turn out to vote.

But the youngest voters are less bothered by the scandal.

And it is not all good news for David Cameron. Three-quarters of voters-including 61 per cent of Tories-say there is no difference between the parties.

They say the Tories are just as likely to engage in dirty tricks such as personal smear campaigns.

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