Brown falls further behind in polls

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown has slipped further behind the Conservatives in an opinion poll on Tuesday and fewer voters are convinced he is the right leader to tackle the economic crisis.

The survey for the Times newspaper put the Labour Party on 33 percent, 10 points behind the Conservatives.

The Conservatives were up four points on last month, while Labour slipped two points, as did the Liberal Democrats on 15 percent, according to the Populus poll.

The survey suggested the prime minister has lost some of the so-called "Brown Bounce," a boost in the polls that followed his handling of the financial turmoil last year.

With unemployment at a decade-high and Britain entering its first recession since the early 1990s, the economy will be a key battleground in the next election, due by May 2010.

Asked who was the right person to lead Britain out of the recession, those polled were split down the middle between Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron. They both attracted 37 percent of the votes.

Two months ago, Brown was on 52 percent, compared with Cameron's 32 percent.

However, the poll put Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling slightly ahead of Cameron and his shadow chancellor George Osborne as the right team to deal with Britain's economic problem.

The Labour pair received 38 percent of the vote, compared with 35 percent for the Conservative duo.