Murdoch down and Ed Miliband up in new opinion poll

Growing public antipathy in Britain towards Rupert Murdoch and his media empire is confirmed in a new poll for this newspaper.

Click HERE to upload graphic (70k jpg)

A ComRes survey reveals that eight out of 10 people think the phone-hacking scandal has spread to all of his British newspaper titles: The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

Seven out of 10 people see Mr Murdoch and his son James as "not fit and proper" to take full control of BSkyB – a bid that News Corporation could re-submit in six months' time after dropping it last Wednesday in the face of widespread opposition.

The poll reveals that dismay at the hacking of phones on behalf of the News of the World is widespread among the public and goes beyond Westminster and media circles.

It will underline fears inside News International that, despite the closure of the News of the World and the dropping of News Corp's bid to buy BSkyB outright, the scandal has spread to other parts of the media giant.

The survey also shows that Ed Miliband has enjoyed a bounce from his handling of the scandal, with his personal rating up seven points on a month ago. The Labour leader secured four victories since the scandal erupted 10 days ago: calling for a public inquiry, demanding Rebekah Brooks's resignation, calling for the BSkyB deal to be dropped and suggesting that Rupert Murdoch apologise to Milly Dowler's family.

By contrast, David Cameron's personal rating has fallen by three points.

Labour are up three points to 40 per cent on last month's poll for the IoS, while the Conservatives are down one point at 36. The Lib Dems remain unchanged on 10 per cent.

About 63 per cent of the public said they trusted the police less as a result of reports that officers had been paid for information by newspapers.