Conservatives makes strong gains against the ruling Labour Party in local
elections seen by analysts as presenting a damning verdict on Prime Minister
Gordon Brown's first year in power.

 UNITED KINGDOM UK POOL -

Britain's ruling Labour Party slumped to its worst local election
defeat in 40 years on Friday (May 2), dealing a bitter blow to Prime Minister
Gordon Brown in his first test at the polls since taking over from Tony Blair.

    Buffeted by global economic turmoil, bedevilled by party in-fighting,
he now faces an uphill climb against the resurgent Conservatives in the next
parliamentary elections due in 2010.
    With two-thirds of the results counted from local councils in England
and Wales, BBC predictions put the Conservatives on 44 percent and Labour on
an ignominious 24 per cent, one point behind the centrist Liberal Democrats.

    Labour was on course to lose around 200 council seats -- around a
quarter of the party's councillors who were up for election.
    The results were a damning verdict on Brown's first year in power since
taking over from Tony Blair, and the poor showing could raise questions about
his leadership, analysts said.
    But government ministers said the poll reflected a downturn in the
economy caused by the worldwide credit crunch and Brown would bounce back to
win the next national election.
    Brown said "It is clear to me that this has been a disappointing
night, indeed a bad night, for Labour.  We have lessons to learn from that and
then we will move forward."
    The Conservatives, the once dominant party of Margaret Thatcher and
Winston Churchill, were in buoyant mood after suffering a decade in the
political wilderness.
     "I think these results are not just a vote against Gordon Brown
and his government. I think they are a vote of positive confidence in the
Conservative Party. I think people see a party that has changed for the
better, that is united, that's got a strong team of leaders, and increasingly
they are looking to us, they are trusting us to speak out on the issues that
they really care about in terms of improving schools, improving our hospitals
and dealing with crime on our streets," Cameron said.
    Nick Clegg, new leader of the Liberal Democrats who could hold the
balance of power if the next election produces a hung parliament, said:
"We have surpassed, outstripped and overtaken the Labour Party in the
share of the vote, and, crucially, we have been winning councillors and
councils off both the Labour Party in the north and the Conservative Party in
the south...So I am actually very pleased at a time when politics is on the
move everything is up for grabs. It shows that we are regaining
momentum."
    Some 4,000 seats on 160 councils across England and Wales were up for
grabs in Thursday's elections.
    Newspapers said Brown had been punished by voters angry over his
decision to abolish the lowest income tax band. The reform triggered a Labour
Party revolt that forced him to make concessions in order to avoid hurting the
poor.
    Attention now turns to London where two political mavericks are
battling for the job of mayor in the closest election since the office was
created eight years ago.
    Victory for Conservative candidate Boris Johnson in the race would be a
major boost for the Cameron. A win for incumbent Ken Livingstone would provide
some relief for Brown.
    Opinion polls have suggested the tightest result since the position of
mayor was created in 2000.
     Johnson refused to claim victory ahead of the official announcement.

    "I think the party's done fantastically nationally but London is a
very different kettle of fish. We'll have to see what happens," he told
reporters.
    Tories were hoping to cap their council successes with victory for
Boris Johnson in the London mayoral battle with Ken Livingstone.
    Livingstone said it may not be possible to read directly across from
the national swing to the personality-driven contest in the capital.