MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Labour with 18% support trail Tories by 22 points, says poll

PM Brown and Labour seem to be in a political “free fall”

Support for the Britain’s ruling Labour party has plunged by 10 points in the past month and the party now trails the Tories by 22% and is running neck and neck with the Liberal Democrats, according to a new poll.

While support for all UK main parties declined in the aftermath of the MPs' expenses scandal, Labour appears to have fared worst by far.

The Ipsos Mori poll put the Tories on 40%, down one since the same survey last month, with Labour support plunging to the same level as the Lib Dems, who were down four on 18%.

At the same time, support for minor parties doubled in the past month to 22%, including 7% for the UK Independence Party, 6% for the Greens and 4% for the British National Party.

Ipsos Mori interviewed 1,001 British adults by telephone between May 29 and 31, weighting data to match the profile of the population.

In related news Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Chancellor Alistair Darling made an “inadvertent” mistake with his Parliamentary expenses. Darling earlier pledged to repay some of his expenses following allegations he claimed on two homes at once.

Asked about the Chancellor's position, the Prime Minister said: “Where a mistake was pointed out to him, and I think it was inadvertent, he acted immediately”. Brown added: “He has paid back the money so there is no doubt about what his course of action would be in these circumstances. I understand it is not a question of him running two homes at once, that is not the case”.

The Daily Telegraph reported that, in July 2007, Mr Darling submitted a £1,004 claim for service charges on his south London flat up to December of that year. Soon afterwards, he became Chancellor, moved into Downing Street and began renting out the flat.

Darling insisted he had not claimed for two homes at the same time, but said he would be repaying some of the cash.

PM Brown stressed: ”Any mistake that is made, people have got to apologise. Anything that is done wrong has got to be investigated. I will have all my expenses investigated again, so will the Chancellor, so will everybody else, by the independent review that is going to be headed by independent auditors”.