Brown clings on as leaders bluff in tense game of political poker

GORDON Brown raised the stakes in the biggest political gamble of his life last night as he desperately tried to cling onto power.

The British premier refused to concede defeat after a knife-edge election result brought the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

Attempting to regain the political initiative, Brown threw down a challenge to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg to use his role as Westminster “king maker” to form a progressive alliance with Labour to radically transform the British political system for good.