Attacks paying off for Peters

Twice as many voters prefer Winston Peters to Bill English as prime minister, a TV3 poll shows.

After weeks of anti-immigration campaigning, New Zealand First leader Mr Peters has 13 per cent support as prime minister.

He is two percentage points up from the same poll in September.

Mr English is headed in the other direction, down to 7 per cent support from 9 per cent.

He is now at his lowest level in the 1000-person poll since August last year, before he took over as National Party leader.

Only 3 per cent of National voters felt Mr English was performing "very well", a big drop from 10 per cent in September.

Although 28 per cent of National voters felt he was doing "fairly well", 37 per cent had him in the "fairly poorly" category, and 10 per cent at "very poorly".

The poll was conducted last week, when Mr English received widespread coverage for his attacks on the Government over local government legislation, leaky buildings, and the wahi tapu issue in Tauranga.

Prime Minister Helen Clark remained a clear favourite with voters, on 41 per cent.

She was judged to be performing well by 71 per cent of voters; 14 per cent felt she was doing poorly.