The Dutch Labour Party has lost even more ground in the polls, according to pollster Maurice de Hond’s peil.nl. Usually seen as the main opposition party, Labour would win just 16 seats in the 150-seat parliament were an election held now.

At the last election the Labour Party won 30 seats, trailing just one seat behind Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD in a neck-and-neck finish. The party is principally losing popularity to the Socialist Party and the centrist D66, now standing at 25 and 18 seats respectively.

Voter confidence in Labour leader Job Cohen also continues to fall, the latest poll found. His own voters give him a rating of just 6.6 out of 10, below Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer at 6.9.

Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party is the second-largest party in the polls, with a notional 27 seats. The party has regained one of the seats it lost in last week’s poll, in the wake of Mr Wilders’ budget debate run-in with the prime minister.

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