British PM savours twin pre-election boost

Prime Minister Gordon Brown received a double boost to his election hopes Friday after a stronger-than-expected bounce out of recession and a poll showing him closing in on his main opponent.

Brown still faces an uphill struggle to win a general election expected on May 6 but received a rare piece of good news when figures confirmed Britain has emerged from recession with 0.3 percent growth in the last quarter of 2009 and not the predicted 0.1 percent.

A second bright spot came as a new opinion poll suggested Brown's governing Labour Party had cut the main opposition Conservatives' lead to just five points and was on course to remain the largest party in parliament.

Some analysts suggested Brown could now be tempted to defy expectations of an election in May and instead call snap polls.

The news came near the end of a week in which Brown launched "Operation Fightback" against David Cameron's Conservatives and strongly denied claims in a new book that he had bullied staff at his Downing Street office.

Brown again indicated he would make the economy central to his re-election campaign in an interview out Friday, despite the country having just emerged from its worst downturn since World War II.

"I think it's a big choice for 2010 and a big choice for the future," the prime minister told The Economist magazine.

"And I'm afraid they (the Conservatives) made all the wrong choices during the recession.

"If we had taken their advice at any point in this recession, we would still be in the recession."

Meanwhile, his de facto deputy, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, sounded a note of caution about Labour's election chances during a visit to Paris, warning the party could not take voters' support "for granted".

"We've been in power for 12, 13 years and normally in Britain any government that's been in office for that long is put out of office," he said.

The new poll in The Daily Telegraph newspaper gives the Conservatives 37 percent support and Labour 32 percent. Ipsos/MORI interviewed 1,533 adults between Friday and Monday.

It follows a Guardian/ICM poll Monday which gave the Conservatives a seven-point lead and echoes other recent surveys suggesting Labour is gaining ground. Cameron's party enjoyed double-digit poll leads until recent weeks.

If the results of Friday's poll were translated directly into election results, it would mean a hung parliament but give Labour the most seats, suggesting Brown might be able to form a new government.

Brown has not yet called the general election although unofficial electioneering has become increasingly intense since the start of the year.

Several unguarded comments from ministers suggest it will be called for May 6 and it must anyway be held by June 3. But some say it could come even sooner.

"With consumer confidence rising and the Tory poll lead narrowing, Mr Brown must be tempted to hold a snap election next month," said economist Ian Kernohan of Royal London Asset Management.

The interviews for the new Telegraph poll took place as claims that Brown bullied his Downing Street office staff emerged in the media, so it gives no clear indication of the impact of the story among voters.

The book claims he swore at advisors, turfed a secretary out of her chair for typing too slowly and furiously grabbed a staff member by the jacket lapels.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling fanned the flames by telling Sky News television Tuesday that "the forces of hell were unleashed" on him by Downing Street for predicting the worst recession for 60 years in 2008.

The Conservatives will try to revitalise their election campaign at their spring conference Saturday and Sunday, when its leadership and activists gather in the southern seaside resort of Brighton.