British Labour back on winning track after 'Brown bounce' (Roundup)

By Anna Tomforde Nov 7, 2008, 11:29 GMT

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged Friday that the global financial crisis helped to turn round his political fortunes, as the ruling Labour Party celebrated a crucial by-election victory in his native Scotland. EPA/ANDY RAIN

London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged Friday that the global financial crisis helped to turn round his political fortunes, as the ruling Labour Party celebrated a crucial by-election victory in his native Scotland.

The surprise win in Glenrothes, a constituency neighbouring his own in Fife, Scotland, amounted to a vote of confidence for the government's response to the economic downturn, Brown said in London Friday.

'What I have learned from this by-election is that people are prepared to support governments that will help people through the downturn and offer real help to people,' he said.

The convincing win for Labour after a string of local election defeats would put a spring in the Prime Minister's step, the Guardian said Friday, boosting further Brown's standing at home and abroad as 'the right man' to take a leading role in the current global crisis.

Labour candidate Lindsay Roy, the headmaster at Brown's old school, prevailed with about 700 votes over his main rival from the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the Glenrothes constituency, north of Edinburgh.

Failure to capture the seat from Labour is a bitter blow to SNP leader Alex Salmond, who is campaigning for an independent Scotland and who has promised a referendum on the issue in 2010.

At the end of July this year, at the height of Brown's political troubles, Labour suffered a stinging election defeat in Glasgow, Scotland's second city, when the previously rock-solid Labour constituency of Glasgow-east fell to the SNP.

The loss of Glasgow-east fuelled a mood of rebellion in sections of the Labour Party and, at that time, a possible defeat at Glenrothes had been named by party rebels as the time to fire the starting gun for a coup, the Guardian recalled Friday.

'Brown has silenced the plotters, for the time being,' said the paper. 'For Gordon Brown, it must feel like Christmas has come early,' said one analyst.

A string of opinion polls in recent weeks has shown that Brown, aided by his active involvement in the finance crisis at European and global level, has managed to halve the Conservatives' lead over Labour to around 8 percentage points.

However, analysts point out that the Conservatives under David Cameron still retain a significant advantage over Labour in the national polls, and that the worst effects of the financial crisis have yet to hit the 'real economy.'