Voters want election by the autumn

Gordon Brown's bid to hold off a general election by promising major constitutional reforms have been given short shrift by voters.

A YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph showed most wanted an election by the autumn at the latest.

The poll also reinforced an earlier survey suggesting Labour could be beaten into fourth place by Ukip in Thursday's Euro election.

"What's the point in electing a new parliament if you haven't got plans to clean up the system?" Mr Brown asked as he dismissed David Cameron's calls for an immediate election.

But 42% of voters - two thirds of whom agreed there was "nothing fundamentally wrong with Britain's constitution providing that MPs are honest and competent" - said they wanted an election by the autumn.

Another 18% called for a snap election within weeks, with 32% happy to wait until next year.

Asked how they would vote on Thursday, Labour scored 17% - the slimmest of leads over Ukip (16%) and the Liberal Democrats 15%. The Tories were on 27%.

The poll showed that Westminster's two biggest parties had been hit hard by the expenses scandal, the Tories plunging by 16 points since last month to 29% while Labour dropped five to 22%.

With the Liberal Democrats static at 18%, the beneficiaries were minor parties who more than doubled their combined support from 10% to 21%. The figures were based on a sample of 5,016 voters across Britain interviewed online between May 27 and 29.

Earlier an ICM survey for the Sunday Telegraph put Mr Brown's party in third place for the first time since 1987 on just 22% - three points adrift of the Lib Dems and 18 behind David Cameron's Conservative Opposition.