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Polls cast pall over Britain's ruling Labor
2009-09-28
BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - Opinion polls cast gloom over Britain's ruling Labor Party on Monday at its last annual conference before a general election which the opposition center-right Conservatives are forecast to win. Senior Labour figures described their party as the underdog in the election due by next June, but told delegates in the southern English city of Brighton not to give in to defeatism. Only one in three Labour members of parliament (MPs) believe they will be the largest party after the election, a poll by Ipsos MORI showed. On average center-right Conservative MPs expected to win a majority of 41 in the 646-seat lower house, while Labour MPs on average forecast a slim Conservative majority of only 7 -- raising the specter of a hung parliament, a nightmare for markets craving decisive action to cut a record budget deficit. A poll of voters in the Independent newspaper said that Labour would perform better under any of eight alternative leaders to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It put Labour 15 points behind the Conservatives. Individual MPs have started to talk again of a leadership challenge to unseat Brown before the election after a rebellion petered out in June. "Unless things change by Christmas it is almost a given that there will be some sort of (leadership) challenge," Labour left-winger Alan Simpson told BBC Radio 4. Former minister Charles Clarke, a frequent Brown critics, said last week he thought the prime minister would quit before the election. However, most Labour MPs believe that the moment has passed. "It's far too late for that," one senior Labour parliamentarian told Reuters. BASH THE BANKERS Brown, the former finance minister who replaced Tony Blair in 2007, has struggled to win public affection. The 58-year-old Scot is often portrayed as dour and former cabinet colleagues have criticized the way he treated them. Finance Minister Alistair Darling picked up on the party's "bash the bankers" theme on Monday as Labour seeks to portray itself as the party of the many, against a rich elite it says the Conservatives would favor. "We won't allow greed and recklessness to ever again endanger the whole global economy and the lives of millions of people," he said, announcing a crackdown on bonuses. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, seeking to lift the downbeat mood, said that the "election was up for grabs." "If we show the British people that we have not lost the fighting spirit and appetite for change which has defined this party throughout its history then we can and we will win," he yelled at the conclusion of an unusually animated speech. Brown found himself at the center of a row with the BBC after a presenter with the state broadcaster asked him about political gossip that he took prescription painkillers, a sensitive subject because it feeds rumors that Brown might cite health as a reason to step down before the election. Brown, who is blind in one eye after a rugby accident as a teenager, denied he took pills and his supporters rounded on the BBC for its questioning. (Additional reporting by Luke Baker in London; Editing by Diana Abdallah)
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