LONDON, May 1, (AFP) -British premier Gordon Brown's re-election hopes took a fresh battering Saturday with the loss of a key media endorsement and a poll confirming his Labour party was in third place ahead of the May 6 vote.
Scenting weakness, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg attacked Labour as a spent force and claimed the final few days of the election campaign would be a “two-horse race” between his party and the main opposition Conservatives. Clegg was boosted by the endorsement of The Guardian newspaper, which traditionally backs Labour but said in an editorial Saturday that “it is hard to feel enthusiasm” for another five years of Brown.
The Times, another leading newspaper which backed Labour in the last three elections, meanwhile switched to the Conservatives, saying they were the best prospect to help Britain recover from the global financial crisis.
Labour, in power for 13 years, began this campaign as the underdog against a strong Tory party. But a huge surge in Lib Dem support after Clegg's star turn in televised leaders' debates unexpectedly pushed them into third place.
A Harris poll for The Daily Mail Saturday confirmed Labour's difficulties, giving them just 24 percent, down two on the previous week, compared to 33 percent for the Conservatives (down one) and 32 for the Lib Dems (up three).
The results of the poll, taken just after the third and final TV debate Thursday, would give David Cameron's Conservatives the largest number of seats but not enough to have a majority, a situation known as a hung parliament. |
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