05/02/2008
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was heading for a "mauling" in his first electoral test with his ruling Labour Party recording its worst performance in local polls in three decades, early results showed on Friday.
Political commentators said Brown's party was set to lose about 200 local council seats with its national share of the vote falling to 24 percent, 20 percent below the opposition Conservatives.
Such an outcome would be a damning verdict on Brown's first year in power since taking over from Tony Blair and the poor showing could raise doubts about his leadership, analysts said.
But ministers said the results were a reflection of a downturn in the economy caused by the worldwide credit crunch and Brown would bounce back and win the next national election.
"There's no crisis. This isn't something that's going to affect the fundamental stability of the government," Cabinet minister Geoff Hoon told BBC TV.
Governments in Britain traditionally suffer a bloody nose in mid-term polls and Brown does not have to call a parliamentary election until 2010, by which time he will be hoping the economic picture will have improved.
Some 4,000 seats on 160 councils across England and Wales were up for grabs in Thursday's elections. With 88 councils having reported results, Labour had lost 109 seats while the Conservatives had gained 122.
Labour Party did badly at the last such local elections in 2004, when public anger was running high over Britain's backing for the United States in the Iraq war.
The BBC projected that the Conservatives' share of the vote was 44 percent with Labour on 24 percent, in third place behind Britain's third party the Liberal Democrats.
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