MORE than half of voters want Tony Blair to quit now amid growing evidence that the cash for honours scandal is damaging the Labour party, a YouGov poll for The Sunday Times shows.

The Tories appear to be benefiting from Blair’s troubles, with 56% believing the prime minister has handed out peerages in return for party donations and loans, and only 13% disagreeing. Even 27% of Labour supporters think he has done so.

Blair’s reputation for honesty has sunk, with only 16% regarding him as straightforward and honest. Of the rest, 20% thought he was honest before but no longer do, while 45% never thought he was.

By 53% to 35%, people said he should resign if charges are brought against Lord Levy, his chief fundraiser, or members of his staff. Many voters, however, think he should go regardless of the progress of the police investigation, because the government is in limbo. By 55% to 29%, people think he should quit now; 24% of Labour voters took this view.

The poll of more than 2,000 people, carried out on Thursday and Friday, follows the police questioning of Blair as a witness in the cash for honours affair, and the arrest of two of his closest aides. It gives David Cameron’s Conservatives a five-point lead over Labour. The Tories are on 37%, Labour 32%, the Liberal Democrats 18% and other parties 13%.

Despite claims by some MPs that cash for honours is a “Westminster village” issue, the poll shows deep concern among voters: 70% said they were worried by the fact that political donations or loans could buy a seat in the House of Lords, compared with 23% who said it did not.

The poll asked a series of questions about Blair, Cameron and Gordon Brown. Blair scored badly, with 50% saying he is out of touch and 49% saying he was more interested in spin than substance and would say anything to win votes. Brown fared better, with only 23% saying he was interested in spin and only 14% describing him as untrustworthy, half Blair’s score. People also see Brown as tough and competent.

Cameron scored nearly as badly as Blair on some of the “spin” questions, 41% saying he would say anything to win votes. Only 4% think him untrustworthy, but a significant minority (26%) see him as lightweight.

On the plus side, the Tory leader outscored both Blair and the chancellor for having “good ideas about Britain’s future”.

While Cameron can take pride in the fact that the Tories have been in the lead in YouGov polls for 12 months — something none of his predecessors had achieved in the Blair era — Brown will be comforted that the Tory lead at this stage is not bigger.

In previous parliaments parties that won the subsequent general election achieved mid-term poll ratings of between 50% and 61%. The Tories under Cameron have yet to break decisively above 40%.

This may be because all parties are suffering from the controversy over abuses of the honours system. By 53% to 9%, people think honours were routinely “sold” when the Tories were last in power.

Today’s poll ratings would produce a hung parliament, with Labour as the largest party with 294 seats, the Tories on 277 and the Lib Dems 47.

“The larger truth is that none of three people who lead, or aspire to lead Britain generate much enthusiasm with the electorate,” said Peter Kellner, the YouGov chairman. “If ‘none of the above’ were on the ballot paper at the next election, it could well win by a landslide.”

Brown will be worried by the fact that the Tories have a narrow lead on the key question of economic competence. While neither party scores well, the Conservatives are on 28% against Labour’s 26% when people are asked who they most trust to improve their standard of living.

In the light of the release last week of the cockpit video of the “friendly fire” incident in which Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull died, YouGov asked about the incident and the special relationship with America.

Most people, 58%, said the incident in which the British soldier was killed in Iraq reflected America’s “trigger happy” approach and was clearly the fault of the US military, while only 26% accepted that it was the kind of accident that occurs in wartime.There was also anger, expressed by 54%, about America’s reluctance to release the tape of the incident.

Attitudes to the war and to the special relationship between London and Washington appear to be hardening. Support for the Iraq war, which peaked at the time of the fall of Baghdad almost four years ago, continues to fade.

By nearly three to one, 59% to 22%, voters agreed with the proposition that the Iraq war was “an irresponsible US action, which Britain should never have got involved with”. The minority, now down to just over a fifth, thought America was right to confront Saddam Hussein, and for Britain to be involved.

Nearly two-thirds, 64%, said that under Blair, Britain is “taken for granted and pushed around” by the US. Only 7% agreed with the prime minister’s claim that Britain, as a key ally, has influenced America’s decisions.

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