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Fresh poll blow to British PM as papers turn against him
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Fresh poll blow to British PM as papers turn against him
AFP - 48 minutes ago
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LONDON (AFP) - – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed to "never give up" after his slim re-election hopes took a fresh blow when two top newspapers turned against him Saturday, days before crucial May 6 polls.
As party leaders entered the last days of campaigning for the knife-edge general election, long-time Labour supporters The Times and The Guardian both announced they were switching away from Brown's party this time around.
The Times will support the Conservatives for the first time in 18 years because leader David Cameron "has shown the fortitude, judgement and character to lead this country back to a healthier, stronger future," it said.
And The Guardian, seen as the broadsheet of record for the left, said it backed Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats, adding in an editorial that it was "hard to feel enthusiasm" at a possible five more years of Brown. Facts: Britain's three party leaders
The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily, is already supporting the Conservatives, as is influential current affairs magazine the Economist.
"I'm fighting not just for my life but I'm fighting for what I believe is important for the future of the country," Brown said. "I never give up and I will never give up."
Along with falling opinion polls, the loss of support is the latest blow to the prime minister, who only took over from Tony Blair in 2007 and has never led Labour to victory in a national election to parliament.
On Wednesday Brown was caught offguard calling an elderly widow a "bigoted woman" after meeting her on the campaign trail, and the next day he struggled to make an impact in the final televised leaders' debate.
"Sometimes you say things you greatly regret. And I have paid a very high price for it," Brown told The Daily Telegraph Saturday, referring to the incident dubbed "bigotgate" by the media.
Highlighting its influence on the race, Brown was later heckled at a campaign event by a man who shouted, "What about that bigoted woman?" before being dragged out of the room by staff.
Labour, in power for 13 years, began this campaign as the underdog against the Tories. But a surge in Liberal Democrat support after Clegg's star turn in televised leaders' debates unexpectedly pushed the party into third place.
An Angus Reid poll for the Sunday Express put Labour on just 23 percent, compared to the Tories' 35 percent and the Lib Dems' 29 percent, although three other surveys suggested Labour could regain its second place.
They put the Tories variously at 35, 36 or 38 percent of the vote, Labour on 27, 28 and 29 percent support and the Lib Dems on 25, 27 and 28 percent.
All these results would give Tories the most seats but not enough for a majority -- a situation known as a hung parliament -- and they would have to count on other smaller parties' support to form a government.
The Lib Dems could hold the balance of power, and Clegg has indicated they may be more likely to form an alliance with Labour than the Conservatives.
He told the BBC Saturday that "the sky's the limit" for the number of seats his party could win. They had 63 out of 646 in the last parliament.
In his constituency in Oxfordshire, central England, Cameron said his tactics for the final days of the campaign were "energy, energy, energy".
"I'm going to give it everything I've got," he told reporters.
"Vote Labour -- more of the same. Vote Liberal -- complete uncertainty. If you vote Conservative, you get a new government on Friday, a new prime minister, a new direction for our country," Cameron said.
Brown's de facto deputy, Peter Mandelson, meanwhile tried to rally Labour party supporters in an email.
"Gordon Brown is a serious man for serious times. Cameron and Clegg may do the spin better. But they don't have the substance," he wrote.
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