Labour election defeat another blow for Brown

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered an humiliating defeat in a mid-term election for a vacant parliamentary seat, exactly a year after he took power.

And a poll in the Daily Telegraph made for further grim reading, saying Brown was regarded as a liability to his ruling Labour party by two-thirds of British voters.

Brown’s year in office since taking over from Tony Blair has been calamitous.

The approval ratings of Blair’s former finance minister have been in free-fall since he opted against calling a snap general election last October.

The Labour candidate for the parliamentary seat in the affluent town of Henley-on- Thames came fifth in the poll on Thursday, attracting just 3.1% of votes cast — behind the Greens and the far-right British National party. Three years ago Labour won 14.7%.