Election doubts as Tories slash lead

Updated 20.06 Fri Oct 05 2007

Keywords: Liberal Democrats, election, Labour, Tories

The prospects of a snap election have been thrown into doubt with opinion polls showing Labour's lead over the Tories has been slashed.

The findings will come as a shock to Prime Minister Gordon Brown who had been considering taking advantage of Labour's previous lead of up to 11 points, to call a November election.

The surge follows Mr Cameron's unscripted conference speech at the annual party conference in Blackpool

Three polls - one for last night's Channel 4 News and others in Friday's editions of The Times and The Guardian - show Labour's lead cut to four points, three points and neck and neck, respectively.

The Guardian puts Labour and the Tories on 38 per cent, an eight-point drop for Mr Brown's party, and a six-point rise for David Cameron's Conservatives, while the Liberal Democrats are on 16 per cent.

The surge follows Mr Cameron's unscripted conference speech at the annual party conference in Blackpool.

In The Times a Populus poll has Labour on 39 points, a drop of two points on a survey last week, the Tories on 36, a rise of five points, and the Lib Dems on 15, also down two.

And Channel 4 News' YouGov poll showed the Labour lead cut from 11 points to four, with Labour on 40 points, the Conservatives on 36 and the Liberal Democrats on 13. Other parties are on 11.

If Mr Brown was to lose an election, he would go down as one of the shortest serving prime ministers in British history.

If he failed to increase Labour's Parliamentary majority of 64 at the 2005 election it would undermine his authority.

Last night Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly appeared to brush off the latest data, saying: "I don't find it surprising at all. The polls bounce around, over the summer the polls bounce around all the time.

"In the party conference season they go up when Labour has them, they go up for the Tories... that's what you expect at this time of year."

Ms Kelly said the issue of an early election was a matter for Mr Brown but said she was "ready" for one.

She added: "When I heard David Cameron say, 'Bring it on', I just had one thought. Be careful what you wish for."

But shadow chancellor George Osborne attacked Mr Brown. He said: "I think he is really playing politics with the political process in a way that we have not seen from a Prime Minister of either party for a very long time."