Sooty beats Blair in leader poll

The Queen topped the survey by CyberBritain.com, followed by Prince William, but the broadcaster Jeremy Paxman was a surprise in third place.

Out of 16 candidates put forward in the internet poll, Ken Livingstone was voted the least popular to head the country.

More than 30,000 people voted in the poll over a five-day period, choosing both someone they would most like to be head of state and someone they would least like to be head of state, and giving a short reason for their choice.

Benjamin Cohen, who thought up the survey, said: "We’re delighted with the level of votes that we are seeing and it has given us a totally new perspective on who the public think should lead the country.

"By creating a system that assesses both the first and last preference votes, we have a much better idea of who the public would be most content with as their head of state.

"Due to receiving so many votes we have decided to keep the voting open for a second round.

"All of the same candidates are up for election and it will be interesting to see how the results vary over the next few weeks."

Sooty ranked fourth favourite in the poll, followed by Richard Branson, Rolf Harris, David Beckham and Trevor McDonald. Charles Kennedy, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, was in ninth place, followed by Will Young, Barbara Windsor, Prince Charles and Mr Blair.

Iain Duncan Smith, the leader of the Conservative Party, was 14th, followed by Tory MP Anne Widdecombe, with Mr Livingstone, the mayor of London, in 16th and last place.

Political and Royal figures in the poll attracted the most controversy, with large numbers of votes both for and against them.

The reasons given for Mr Paxman’s popularity included his intelligence and sharp wit, while Sooty won votes because, as a puppet, he was perceived as being more honest than politicians.

The Queen attracted support because of the work she already does, and Prince William was popular with voters because of his youth and lack of formality.

The Queen’s winning total was more than 7,300 votes, while Mr Livingstone had a negative score of minus 4,794, after attracting more than 11,000 votes against him.