Fresh woes for Brown as two newspapers ditch support
May 1st, 2010 - 3:13 pm ICT by IANS
London, May 1 (DPA) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a fresh setback Saturday as two major newspapers dropped their backing for his Labour party - just five days before the country’s general election.
The traditionally-Labour supporting The Guardian announced it was recommending voters cast their preference for the centrist Liberal Democrats in Thursday’s election.
Meanwhile, The Times - owned by Rupert Murdoch - revealed it was backing the Conservatives, under David Cameron. At the last election, in 2005, it declared for Labour, then led by Tony Blair.
Murdoch’s other major British newspaper, the best-selling tabloid The Sun, has already come out for the Conservatives, who currently hold a slim lead in most opinion polls.
However, following Britain’s unprecedented three live TV debates between the party leaders, the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg, appear to have seized second place from Labour, according to those polls.
That would point to a hung parliament, where no party had a majority of seats.
One opinion poll Saturday, for the Daily Mail, gave the Conservatives 33 percent, the Liberal Democrats 32 percent, and Labour trailing - after 13 years in power - on just 24 percent.
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