Public anger over the loss by Revenue & Customs of 25 million sets of personal details and deepening gloom over the economy has led to a dramatic collapse of confidence in Gordon Brown’s competence. The number of voters who think that the Prime Minister and Alistair Darling, his Chancellor, can be trusted to handle economic problems has more than halved in a little over two months, according to a poll for The Times.

In a further blow to the Government, a majority is pessimistic about the economic outlook as voters feel the effects of falling house prices, the Northern Rock crisis and the wider credit crunch. The Populus poll of 1,025 adults, undertaken on Wednesday evening, shows that public confidence in the Government’s ability to handle confidential data has been profoundly shaken by Britain’s biggest data security breach.

Last night the Government’s difficulties worsened when five former military chiefs launched a concerted attack against what they said was the failure to “equip, train and properly support” Armed Forces preparing to go into battle.

The Chancellor found himself facing more pressure yesterday with the publication of e-mails showing that at least one senior Revenue & Customs manager was consulted over the transfer of the missing data. He had laid the blame for the blunder on a junior IT official. Ministers’ embarrassment deepened as it emerged that one e-mail from the National Audit Office, which had asked Revenue & Customs for the information, asked that it be sent “as safely as possible”. The exchange also bears out claims that the Revenue & Customs unnecessarily sent millions of banking details to save cash.

As police searches for the missing CDs continued, the Revenue & Customs was starting to contact the seven million child benefit recipients warning them to watch out for bank fraud while insisting that it was “likely to still be on government property”.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said that the e-mail exchanges brought into question Mr Darling’s version of events. “The Chancellor must urgently explain the apparent inconsistencies between these e-mails and his statement to Parliament. He needs to tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then we can decide whether he is fit to remain in office. It now appears that at least one official at a senior level within Revenue & Customs knew about the decision not to remove these sensitive details before giving it to the NAO [National Audit Office]. This version of events appears inconsistent with what the Chancellor has told the public and Parliament.”

The Treasury, however, insisted that Mr Darling claimed one person alone was responsible for the blunder.

The depth of public anger over the blunder is revealed by the poll, which suggests that 73 per cent of voters believe it has hit their confidence in the Government’s ability to handle confidential data. Some 64 per cent say it calls into question “the basic competence of the Government”.

The number trusting Mr Brown and Mr Darling to deal with any economic problems has plummeted from 61 to 28 per cent since early September. But trust in David Cameron and Mr Osborne has only risen from 27 to 34 per cent with a trebling to 37 per cent in the number saying they trust neither team or they don’t know. By a narrow margin of 44 to 40 per cent, voters say they believe Mr Darling should lose his job rather than stay.

Apart from the direct political fall-out, Mr Brown will be worried by a big deterioration in expectations about the economy. The number believing that the economy will do well over the next year has dropped from 53 to 34 per cent since early September, while the number thinking that it will do badly has risen from 45 to 55 per cent.

Moreover, with widespread talk of a fall in house prices and worse economic conditions next year, the number thinking that they and their families will do well has fallen even more sharply, from 61 to 33 per cent, while the number fearing they will do badly has risen from 34 to 53 per cent.

For the first time, a majority now opposes the introduction of ID cards.

— Populus interviewed 1,025 adults aged over 18 online on November 21.

For more details go to www.populus.co.uk

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