Blair No Longer Trustworthy, Says Newspaper Poll

LONDON (Reuters) - Most Britons no longer find Prime Minister Tony Blair trustworthy and nearly half think he should quit, according to a newspaper poll Sunday.

It showed most voters also say his record on health, crime, transport and asylum-seekers is poor.

Beset by questions over whether he exaggerated the case for war against Iraq and under fire from political opponents for what they call a botched cabinet reshuffle this month, Blair emerged badly from the MORI poll commissioned by the News of the World.

Fifty-eight percent of those questioned said he was not trustworthy, against 36 percent who thought he was, while 53 percent said he had run out of ideas. Gordon Brown was trustworthy.

The poll found 48 percent thought Blair should quit, 51 percent thought Labour's record on both health and crime-fighting was poor, while 53 percent thought his record on transport was bad.

Polling figures like these are a new experience for Tony Blair. The first stage in a government jumping the shark is a few bad polls. The next is to announce there's nothing wrong with the policies but the communications strategy is wrong. Media bias is often a minor counterpoint. If I were Alastair Campbell I might be looking up the job column for retired spin doctors about now.

Link via Eschaton.