Poll woes for British PM

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party is trailing the Labour opposition by 14 points, a poll out Sunday found.

The YouGov poll in The Sunday Times newspaper put the centre-right Conservatives on 31 percent, going into their annual conference in Birmingham, central England, which kicks off Sunday.

Labour were on 45 percent, with the centrist Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives’ junior partners in the governing coalition, on eight percent and other parties on 15 percent combined.

Meanwhile an Opinium Research poll in The Observer newspaper put Labour on 41 percent, the Conservatives on 30 percent, the Lib Dems on nine and other parties on 20 percent.

Some 50 percent said they had an unfavourable view of Cameron, while 53 percent said they had an unfavourable view of finance minister George Osborne, the Opinium survey found.

When Conservative voters were asked who they would most prefer to replace Cameron as party leader, 35 percent said London Mayor Boris Johnson, while 20 percent said Foreign Secretary William Hague, a former leader.

Five percent said interior minister Theresa May, while 30 percent said they did not know.

Among Conservative supporters, Cameron leads on “tough decisions” (44 percent), “strong leadership” (45 percent) and “credible” (41 percent).

Meanwhile Johnson is the overwhelming choice for “able to inspire people” (53 percent) and “able to attract voters who might not normally support the Conservative Party” (62 percent).

YouGov questioned 1,782 people between Thursday and Friday. Opinium Research surveyed 1,965 British adults online from Tuesday to Thursday.