Has the ‘novice’ line worked?

For a few months now, Cameron and Osborne have led Brown and Darling in poll questions on economic competence.  Today’s ComRes poll for the Daily Politics ends that trend.  Answering the question “Putting your party allegiance aside, who do you trust most to steer Britain’s economy through the current downturn?”, 36 percent of respondents said the Labour pair, 30 percent the Tory pair.

It’s the first substantive sign that Brown’s “I am the right man to steer us through these dark times” positioning at party conference – encapusulated by the “novice” dig at Cameron and Miliband – has hit home with voters.  And another reminder that the Tories need to work hard to counter the accusation when they gather in Birmingham.

It’s certainly very do-able – YouGov’s recent poll for the Sun found that 60 percent of voters think that Brown doesn’t understand what the public’s going through as the economy worsens, and there’s definite room for a straightforward explanation of what’s going on and how it can be remedied.