The government's deficit plans are supported by three-to-one by the public over Labour's despite the gloomy economic outlook, according to a ComRes poll for The Independent.
Three-quarters of people supported the government paying off the deficit as soon as possible, with 18% disagreeing. Over half of Labour voters said the government should not borrow any more.
Labour and the Conservatives are neck-and-neck at 38% in the poll, after the Tories received what looks like a bounce following the European Summit.
In a YouGov poll for the Sun, however, the Conservatives were two points ahead of Labour.
The figures come as a separate poll for the grassroots Labour website LabourList showed support had plummeted for Ed Miliband over the past month.
"The percentage of LabourList readers rating Miliband as Good or Excellent has fallen to just 26% down from 40% last month and a high of 59% in the wake of the phone hacking scandal in July.
"41% think that Miliband’s performance has been Poor or Very Poor, with 33% considering his performance to be average", site editor Mark Ferguson said.