Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown bottom of popularity stakes for Labour activists

LabourHome has published its first grassroots survey of Labour Party activists views on cabinet ministers. I thought it would be interesting to compare it to my Iain Dale list comparing Labour cabinet ministers with their Tory shadows.

The first thing that strikes me is that similarity between the two, which to me indicates my thoughts chime with the majority of Labour Party members.

Those who I thought were being beaten by the Tories were Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, Jacqui Smith, Des Browne, Harriet Harman, Ed Balls and Ruth Kelly. They all, except Harman and Smith, languish in the bottom half of the table. Indeed Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and Ruth Kelly are in the bottom three spots with Des Browne and Ed Balls not far behind. Of those in the bottom half I believe only Ed Balls has potential to improve.

At the top of the table are David Miliband, Alan Johnson and Hilary Benn with just .05 between them, Jack Straw is just .21 behind. followed by John Denham, Ed Miliband, Andy Burnham and James Purnell. The only rating I’d personally really disagree with is Yvette Cooper who is in the bottom half of the table (but significantly above Ed Balls). I’d also like to see the table include Caroline Flint who attends Cabinet, but isn’t a full member. I believe that she would almost certainly be in the top half of the table, probably just above Jacqui Smith and below James Purnell.

This isn’t a scientific poll, as Alex Hilton sensibly points out, but it will become more fascinating as it is used as a tracking device to see how activists views change over time.