SUPPORT for the Liberal Democrats has fallen to its lowest level since 2001 after the party’s turmoil over Charles Kennedy’s resignation.

The latest Populus poll for The Times, undertaken between Friday and Sunday, indicates that the Lib Dems’ rating dropped over the past month by 3 points to 16 per cent. Mr Kennedy resigned as leader on Saturday afternoon.

By contrast, support for the two main parties has risen since early December by 1 point each, to 39 per cent for Labour and 36 per cent for the Tories.

The latest rating is the lowest for the Lib Dems since the 2001 election, apart from three polls that autumn. Since then, party support has averaged just under 22 per cent.

The poll comes out as Simon Hughes and Mark Oaten consider standing for the leadership against Sir Menzies Campbell, the acting leader, and the only publicly declared candidate so far. Sir Menzies now has the support of two former party leaders in Lord Steel of Aikwood and Lord Ashdown of Norton-subHamdon.

The polls indicate considerable sympathy for Mr Kennedy. Two thirds of Liberal Democrat voters backed his original determination to stay on as leader, nearly three fifths thought that he should remain, despite admitting an alcohol problem, and a half still backed him, even though he had lied in the past about this.

The worry for the Lib Dems is that their rating could fall further if recriminations about Mr Kennedy’s departure continue and there is now a bitter leadership contest.

The poll underlines the favourable impact of David Cameron’s election as Tory leader on the Conservative Party’s prospects. Tory support since his election has been in the 36 to 38 per cent range, compared with a maximum of about 32 per cent since the mid-1990s.

Mr Cameron’s leader rating is now much higher than that of his predecessors. On a scale of 0 to 10 his rating is 5.28. That compares with 4.58 for Michael Howard a year ago, and 4.2 to 4.3 for Iain Duncan Smith in the summer of 2003, before he was forced out.

The new Tory leader’s rating is just behind Tony Blair, at 5.33 among the public generally, and is comfortably ahead among middle-class voters. Mr Cameron has made a particularly strong impact on Tory voters, who give him a 6.75 rating, against 6.49 for Mr Howard a year ago.

Labour is still marginally ahead of the Tories and Mr Blair’s personal rating is his highest to date. Labour voters give him a rating of 7.55, up from 7.24 a year ago.

About 28 per cent of all voters want Mr Blair to step down as Prime Minister now and 13 per cent by the end of this year. Nearly a tenth, 9 per cent, say that he should go next year and 34 per cent want him to go just before the next election.

These figures are roughly the same as last October. Among Labour voters, 13 per cent want him to go now, 11 per cent by the end of this year, 15 per cent next year and 42 per cent just before the election.

Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,509 adults aged over 18 by telephone between January 6 and 8. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to be representative of all adults. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. A minor change has been made to the way the figures are adjusted for the recall of past votes. That leaves the Tory share unchanged and cuts the Labour rating by one point, to 39 per cent.

For full details, go to www.populuslimited.com

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