( AFP ) - Gordon Brown's government is losing its much-trumpeted reputation for economic competence, according to a poll published Monday.
The Harris survey for the Financial Times showed that 68 percent of Britons were "not confident at all" in the government's ability to deal with the current economic struggles.
It comes after a poll published in The Sunday Times found the main opposition Conservatives on a 16-year poll rating high, with a 16-percentage-point lead over Brown's Labour.
Brown has endured a tough week amid criticism from Labour backbenchers over his scrapping of the 10 percent starting rate of income tax as the economy suffers from the global credit crunch.
Voters in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United States were also asked by Harris how much confidence they had in their respective governments to deal with the economic crisis.
Overall, 52 percent of Germans, 51 percent of Americans, 50 percent of the French, 43 percent of Italians and 36 percent of Spaniards said they were "not confident at all".
Harris questioned 6,434 adults in total in the six countries, including 1,122 in Britain, between March 27 and April 8.