United Bermuda Party leader Kim Swan's popularity has reached a new low, with just 19 percent of people in favour of him — the worst score of any party leader since TheRoyal Gazette polling began five years ago.

And Premier Ewart Brown's favourability has climbed to 32 percent — up from his record-breaking low for a Premier of 27 percent in the previous Gazette survey in June.

The Premier's new score in our Research.bm poll is not as impressive as his score was in the Progressive Labour Party-commissioned poll released last week, but it shows opinion of Dr. Brown has mellowed since hitting rock bottom around the time of the Uighurs affair.

At the end of June, Mr. Swan's rating stood at 30 percent. However, it has plummeted to 19 percent following three months in which UBP MPs have staged high-profile walkouts, numerous branch members have resigned and long-serving politicians have spoken out against Mr. Swan's leadership.

The lowest rating achieved by a party leader previously was 20 percent, by then UBP leader Wayne Furbert in January 2007, shortly before he was replaced as leader by Michael Dunkley.

Mr. Swan has repeatedly welcomed an imminent leadership challenge from Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards. A date for the leadership challenge will be fixed after a UBP special central council meeting this week.

Last week, Mr. Richards claimed the leader had stonewalled calls for reform from younger MPs who ended up quitting the party in frustration last month.

That followed remarks from Mr. Swan's deputy, Trevor Moniz, who accused him of a "huge error" in failing to push through change and spending too much time fixating on his poll ratings instead.

Defecting UBP MPs Shawn Crockwell, Donte Hunt and Mark Pettingill have also said the final straw which convinced them to quit the party was Mr. Swan's handling of the motion of no confidence in Dr. Brown, which failed even to attract full support from the UBP at the end of June.

And Mr. Furbert, who quit the party in December 2008, last week claimed Mr. Swan had wanted nothing to do with the UBP during the 2007 General Election campaign, and was now controlled by Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons.

A breakdown of poll results show Mr. Swan is more popular with the older section of society, enjoying a favourability rating of 32 percent among the over 65s. However he falls down among the younger generation, with just 11 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds in favour.

Dr. Brown's rating is markedly better than Mr. Swan's thanks mainly to support among the black population. Forty-five percent of blacks are in favour of the Premier, compared to just nine percent of whites.

Meanwhile the number of people giving Dr. Brown the lowest possible score of one-out-of-five has also dropped, from 46 percent at the end of June to 36 percent now.

But Dr. Brown's performance approval rating has also dropped slightly, from 30 percent to 27 percent.

The telephone survey of 400 people took place from October 7 to 13 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.

The PLP poll last week, carried out by American firm Research 2000, had put the Premier's rating at 43 percent.

A UBP spokesman reflected yesterday: "We note in this poll that Dr. Brown's favourability rating hasn't appreciably changed and when viewed alongside his lower performance rating put the lie to the biased PLP poll last week."

PLP spokesman Wentworth Christopher said he had a "serious credibility challenge" with the Research.bm poll. He said he was not happy with the demographics but, when asked for specific details why, said he would have to respond in a statement today.

He also complained the poll did not reflect the voting patterns of the 2007 General Election. Details of the poll shared with the PLP yesterday showed that of those taking part, 46 percent voted PLP in the last election, and 40 percent voted UBP.

l See tomorrow's Royal Gazette for favourability ratings on 12 politicians who have hit the headlines over the summer.