Brown and Darling lose confidence of entrepreneurs, poll shows

Gordon Brown and his Chancellor Alistair Darling are losing the confidence of British entrepreneurs, according to a survey.

A poll by ComRes of 188 prominent businessmen found that only 26 per cent have confidence in the Prime Minister, while more than twice as many (59 per cent) have faith in David Cameron. Only 17 per cent feel able to place their trust in Mr Darling, who has a much lower "confidence rating" than the shadow Chancellor, George Osborne (48 per cent).

The findings suggest that the Conservative Party's attempt to use the global economic turmoil to undermine Mr Brown's credentials may be paying dividends. It has accused him of failing to use the good times during his 10 years as Chancellor to prepare Britain for the bad times.

Mr Darling's reputation in the business world appears to have been battered by a series of problems including his controversial plans to bring in a single 18 per cent rate of capital gains tax (CGT). Today the Chancellor will announce some concessions to his critics. His rethink will reflect proposals by the Federation of Small Businesses for an "entrepreneurs' relief" based on a 9 per cent rate of CGT on the first £750,000 of capital gains.

According to ComRes, only 23 per cent of businessmen believe that Mr Darling understands business, while 59 per cent think he is out of his depth. Only 18 per cent believe he promotes a culture of enterprise and 13 per cent that he is well equipped to steer the economy. Some 57 per cent think his original CGT plans will damage British business.

It emerged yesterday that Mr Brown has shaken up his team in Downing Street, moving his chief of staff, Tom Scholar, back to the Treasury to take charge of its handling of the international financial crisis. Mr Scholar, 39, is a former IMF executive director, but has lasted only six months at Number Ten. Meanwhile, Jeremy Heywood, who was Tony Blair's principal private secretary from 1993 to 2003, will replace Mr Scholar as the Prime Minister's "fixer".

Mr Cameron stepped up the Tory attack on the Government's handling of the Northern Rock crisis yesterday. Mr Brown refused to reveal how much taxpayers would pay the investment bankers Goldman Sachs, which is advising the Government on Northern Rock's future.

The Prime Minister surprised MPs by claiming that the taxpayer could make a "profit" out of the sale of Northern Rock.

Gavyn Davies, the former chief economist of Goldman Sachs, is a close friend of the Prime Minister and is married to Sue Nye, Mr Brown's "gatekeeper" at No 10. There have been reports that the firm could make £400m in fees from the sale after producing the controversial idea to convert the Bank of England's £25bn of loans to Northern Rock into government-backed bonds to make a private sale more likely.

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