Labour tops sleaze poll

Tony Blair's image has suffered during the past week

More voters now consider the Labour Party "sleazier" than the Conservatives, according to a poll.

The survey, which was carried out after the resignation of spin doctors Jo Moore and Martin Sixsmith, indicates that 60% think Labour appears "sleazy and disreputable".

Only 41% think the same of the Tories.

The poll also suggests that Tony Blair's image has suffered from the revelations that he helped Labour donor Lakshmi Mittal win a lucrative steel contract in Romania.

According to The Sunday Times, 79% of voters think the prime minister gives special help to his party's business donors "often" or "sometimes".

Only 64% believe the same would be true of a Tory government led by Iain Duncan Smith.

Tony Blair's Labour Party is now regarded by British voters as the sleaziest party in Britain

Tim Collins
Shadow Cabinet Office minister

Of the 3,113 adults surveyed by internet pollsters YouGov, only 11% thought Mr Blair "seldom" performed these political favours and just 1% said he "never" does.

A year ago, following Peter Mandelson's resignation from the cabinet over the Hinduja affair, a similar poll by Gallup found Labour and the Tories neck and neck on sleaze.

But a survey weeks before the Conservatives suffered a landslide election defeat in April 1997, just 19% considered Labour "sleazy" compared with 63% who felt the Conservatives were.

On Friday, Ms Moore who was Transport Secretary Stephen Byers' spin doctor, and Mr Sixsmith, the department's press chief, were forced to quit after an outbreak of public feuding.

Ms Moore had already attracted adverse public attention after the leak of her e-mail sent on 11 September suggesting it was a good day to "bury" bad news for the government.

'Lasting damage'

Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett said the events of the past week were "bound to have something of an impact".

But she dismissed suggestions of government sleaze as "nonsense".

Shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Tim Collins called on Mr Blair to "clean up his act straight away" by sacking Mr Byers and Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell as "the only way lasting damage to our democracy can be avoided".

"Tony Blair's Labour Party is now regarded by British voters as the sleaziest party in Britain," he said.