80% Britons feel UK heading into recession

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London, July 22:: An overwhelming 80 per cent Britishers feel that the country is heading into recession and blamed the Brown government for the plight.

A Guardian/ICM poll show that at least 60 per cent are trying to spend less, with clothes and fuel costs heading the list of cutbacks.

Consumer confidence has dropped sharply since the Guardian’s April survey, which revealed that 43 per cent of voters were worried about their financial position. Three months later, the figure is 61 per cent.

Poorer voters, hit hardest by the downturn, are the most likely to be trying to economise.

Overall, 72 per cent say they are spending less on clothes; 71 per cent on food; 70 per cent on driving and petrol; 70 per cent on bills; and 68 per cent on big household items such as furniture.

The survey, carried out on 1,007 adults over the telephone between July 18 and 20, after reports that the chancellor may have to rewrite his fiscal rules to cope with the budget deficit, the poll also shows a further big drop in public confidence in the government’s economic management.

As a result, people no longer trust Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling to run the economy. When asked to compare with David Cameron and George Osborne, 46 per cent of voters pick the Tory team and just 27 per cent the Labour one.