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<font color=green>Emerald Angel<br><font color=mag
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LONDON (Reuters) - A majority of Britons do not want heir to the throne Prince Charles to become king when Queen Elizabeth dies or if she abdicates, a poll showed on Sunday.
Only 42 percent of those questioned in a YouGov poll said Charles should succeed the queen, who is 76, against 58 percent in a similar survey last April.
The findings, published in the Sunday Mirror newspaper, come just days after a damning report into financial and sexual misconduct in the 54-year-old prince's household.
Only 39 percent thought Charles would make a good king, sharply down from 60 percent last April, while 46 percent said he would not, nearly double last year's 24 percent.
Charles's elder son, Prince William, 20, is emerging as the people's choice for next monarch, 32 percent of those polled saying he should become king, up from 20 percent.
The poll was taken last week after the publication of a report by Charles's private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, into allegations involving members of the prince's household -- including a gay rape accusation and claims of interference in the collapse of the theft trial of royal butler Paul Burrell.
Charles's closest aide, Michael Fawcett, resigned in the wake of the report, which cleared Charles and his household of deliberate wrongdoing but pointed out "serious failings" in their handling of events.
Charles escaped personal blame in the report, but many of Britain's Sunday newspapers carried critical articles about him.
"Prince Charles is too careless, weak and selfish to reign over us," read a headline in the conservative Sunday Telegraph, while the Sunday Times said the report had uncovered "something rotten in the prince's feudal kingdom."
The Observer reported courtiers were planning a series of brochures to "repackage Charles as hardworking, frugal and politically sensitive in an urgent bid to put recent damage to his reputation behind him."
Only 42 percent of those questioned in a YouGov poll said Charles should succeed the queen, who is 76, against 58 percent in a similar survey last April.
The findings, published in the Sunday Mirror newspaper, come just days after a damning report into financial and sexual misconduct in the 54-year-old prince's household.
Only 39 percent thought Charles would make a good king, sharply down from 60 percent last April, while 46 percent said he would not, nearly double last year's 24 percent.
Charles's elder son, Prince William, 20, is emerging as the people's choice for next monarch, 32 percent of those polled saying he should become king, up from 20 percent.
The poll was taken last week after the publication of a report by Charles's private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, into allegations involving members of the prince's household -- including a gay rape accusation and claims of interference in the collapse of the theft trial of royal butler Paul Burrell.
Charles's closest aide, Michael Fawcett, resigned in the wake of the report, which cleared Charles and his household of deliberate wrongdoing but pointed out "serious failings" in their handling of events.
Charles escaped personal blame in the report, but many of Britain's Sunday newspapers carried critical articles about him.
"Prince Charles is too careless, weak and selfish to reign over us," read a headline in the conservative Sunday Telegraph, while the Sunday Times said the report had uncovered "something rotten in the prince's feudal kingdom."
The Observer reported courtiers were planning a series of brochures to "repackage Charles as hardworking, frugal and politically sensitive in an urgent bid to put recent damage to his reputation behind him."
