Brown’s re-election hopes fade fast as Tories take lead in polls

A REVIVAL in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s re-election chances evaporated yesterday as two polls forecast victory for the Conservative party in a parliamentary election due by mid-2010.

Polls at the end of last month had suggested the Labour government was narrowing the gap with David Cameron’s Conservatives, with the surveys saying an election would result in a hung parliament and no party in overall control.

But the latest opinion polls gave Cameron double digit leads that would see him end more than a decade of Labour rule and enjoy a parliamentary majority of between 20 and 50 seats.

A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times put the Conservatives down one point at 40%, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 27% and 18% respectively.

The ICM poll in the Sunday Telegraph said 40% of voters backed the Conservatives, down two points since the paper’s last poll in October, with Labour up four points on 29% and the Liberal Democrats down two points on 19%.

The figures will disappoint Brown, as his chancellor Alistair Darling readies budget plans.