Voters narrowly tend to say Gordon Brown was a better chancellor than George Osborne

It's widely rumoured that Gordon Brown is about to announce that he is standing down from parliament. So how does the public assess him now? The best way, we thought, was to compare his performance as chancellor and as prime minister to the incumbents.

Exclusively for Red Box, we asked: "Do you think Gordon Brown was a better or worse chancellor of the Exchequer than George Osborne is now?"

33 per cent said better

29 per cent said worse

We also asked: "Was he a better or worse prime minister than David Cameron is now?" Here the comparison is less positive:

22 per cent said better

41 per cent said worse.

Of course the response was highly skewed by the loyalty of Conservative and Labour supporters – interesting that 12 per cent of those who voted Labour in 2010 think Cameron a better PM, and 9 per cent of those who say they will vote Conservative in the next election think Brown was a better chancellor than Osborne.

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See the full poll results