YouGov poll: More than half of Labor voters prefer Annastacia Palaszczuk over Steven Miles

Labor powerbrokers who orchestrated the downfall of former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk have been dealt a blow by latest poll results.

An exclusive Courier-Mail poll reveals Labor voters aren’t convinced by the decision to dump former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for Steven Miles.

Queensland Labor voters are yet to be convinced Steven Miles is the best person to lead the party to an October victory, with shock new polling showing more than half would have preferred Annastacia Palaszczuk.

While the current Premier was the preferred choice between the two for Queenslanders in general, Labor voters were more likely to pick their former leader, with a vote split of 51 per cent to 49 per cent.

An exclusive new YouGov poll conducted for The Courier-Mail reveals 53 per cent of Queenslanders picked Mr Miles as their preferred choice of premier “if they were forced to choose”, while 47 per cent picked Ms Palaszczuk.

Women were also split 50-50, but men overwhelmingly picked Mr Miles over the state’s longest-serving female premier, 57 per cent to 43 per cent.

LNP voters were more inclined to opt with current premier than Ms Palaszczuk – who was frequently labelled as the “red-carpet premier” by the opposition in the final 12 months of her leadership – with 57 per cent choosing Mr Miles.

Older voters were much more impressed with Mr Miles than Ms Palaszczuk – choosing him 55 per cent to 45 per cent – but younger voters were split 50-50.

Steven Miles, pictured with Cameron Dick, after he was elected Queensland’s new premier at a Labor caucus meeting in mid-December. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Mr Miles proved to have made an impact in Brisbane when voters were asked their preferred choice between the two Labor premiers, with 55 per cent opting for the current leader of the state.

He also had the edge with voters outside the southeast, 55 to 45 per cent.

But Ms Palaszczuk – who led the state from her surprise victory over Campbell Newman in 2015, to her shock resignation in December – was the preferred leader for those outside Brisbane but within the southeast of the state, with a 51 to 49 result in her favour.

Annastacia Palaszczuk announcing her resignation in December last year.

Ms Palaszczuk made her shock resignation announcement at a Sunday press conference in December after almost nine years in the top job, where she said she believed “renewal was a good thing”.

During that press conference she also threw her support behind Mr Miles, after previously refusing to name a potential successor to her reign.

After facing a brief challenge from Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, Mr Miles was named the new Premier and sworn-in on December 15 alongside new Deputy Premier, Cameron Dick.