A poll of Social Democratic voters on the leadership strength of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt shows only 35 per cent of those asked feel she is a strong or very strong prime minister.

The YouGov poll for MetroXpress shows that 35 per cent of those who voted for the Social Democrats at the last election feel Thorning-Schmidt is a strong leader, seven per cent of whom feel she is a very strong leader.

Thirty-five per cent answered that she was neither strong nor weak, while 17 per cent said she was a weak leader. Eleven per cent said she was very weak and a further three per cent said they did not know.

Asked yesterday during her weekly news conference to comment on her weak standing among Social Democratic voters, Thorning-Schmidt said: “I think we will leave it to the voters at election time to decide whether they think that what we are doing benefits Denmark.”

“The government – I – am steadfastly doing what we feel is the right thing to do to get more people onto the labour market, create more jobs and get the Danish economy on its feet again. That is what our government is about,” she added.

The YouGov poll also asked Social Democratic voters who they felt would be the best candidate to take over the party leadership after Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Seventeen per cent chose Minister for Social Affairs Mette Frederiksen and 13 per cent chose Europe Minister Nicolai Wammen.

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