Brown's honeymoon over - polls
2007-10-05 13:28
London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was facing a test of his political nerve on Friday as three new opinion polls suggested his lead has evaporated and could affect his decision to call an early election.
In theory, Brown does not have to go to the country until May 2010 at the latest but double-digit opinion poll leads for his governing Labour Party in recent months have fuelled speculation of an early vote.
Now the political landscape seems to have shifted after the main opposition Conservative Party held what was seen as a successful annual conference earlier this week with headline-grabbing tax proposals to key voters,
A Guardian/ICM survey on Friday showed Labour, which held an eight-point lead last month, neck-and-neck with the Conservatives on 38%.
Separate Channel 4/YouGov and Times/Populus polls put Labour's lead at four and three points respectively, down from leads of 11 and 10 points.
Labour's leads before the Tory conference - after Brown's widely praised handling of several crises, including failed car bombings, floods and foot and mouth disease - would have guaranteed the party a landslide election victory.
But the new polls make any result more doubtful. Brown is reported to be set to make a decision after receiving data from private Labour Party polling this weekend.
The Guardian said if its results were replicated in a general election, Labour's current 69-seat majority in the 646-seat lower chamber House of Commons would be reduced to about 20 seats.
YouGov chairperson Peter Kellner was quoted as saying in the right-wing Daily Telegraph: "It could be a Labour landslide or Labour could lose their majority.
"The oscillation towards Labour and back again is the largest we've seen for more than 20 years."