Chancellor Gordon Brown's poll ratings have plummeted in the wake of new revelations about his £5 billion tax raid on pension funds in his 1997 Budget, according to two surveys.
A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times found that more than half of voters - 52% - now believe he has been a bad Chancellor, as against 41% who thought he had done a good job running the Treasury.
That represents an almost exact reversal of the position a month ago when 51% said that he had a good record in No 11 as against 41% who thought he had a poor one.
Asked whether he was fit to be Prime Minster in the light of the disclosures over his handling of pensions, only 27% said that he was, as against 57% who said he was not.
Just 11% said they thought he would make a better Prime Minister than Tony Blair, while 38% thought he would be worse.
At the same time, an ICM Research poll for the News of the World found that 57% hold him responsible for the current shortfall in pension funds. That rises to 69% among voters aged 55 and older.
Overall, 44% said Mr Brown's handling of the pensions issue would harm his chances of winning the next election if, as expected, he succeeds Mr Blair as Labour leader. Again that rises among older voters to 55%.
The findings came after the release of Treasury papers under the Freedom of Information Act sparked accusations that Mr Brown ignored the advice of officials when he scrapped the tax relief on dividends paid to pension funds - a claim strongly denied by the Treasury.
Overall the YouGov poll put the Conservatives on 39%, one point up on last month and eight points ahead of Labour on 32% - down one on a month ago. The Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 16%.
