Britain’s PM braces for poll battle

New York, September 27: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted he will not “roll over” and give up the fight as his embattled Labour Party kicked off its last pre-election conference.

The centre-left party, which has gathered in the south coast resort of Brighton for its last annual congress before the general election due by June next year, is well behind in the opinion polls.

And Mr Brown’s finance minister, Alistair Darling, warned on Sunday that Labour appears to have lost “the will to live”.

“We don’t look as if we have got fire in our bellies. We have got to come out fighting,” he told The Observer newspaper.

The centre-right main opposition Conservatives have led opinion polls by a wide margin for months, suggesting Labour has an uphill battle to win next year’s vote to earn a fourth straight term in office.

The party conference season effectively kick-starts election campaigning.

“A setback can either be a challenge, which means it is an opportunity to do something better, or you can roll over. I do not roll over,” Mr Brown told BBC television.
“A setback for me is a challenge, an opportunity to learn, of course, if you have made mistakes, and to do things better.”

The Scot admitted he sometimes wondered whether people thought someone else could do a better job as prime minister, but said he had “no doubt” that he had taken the right decisions over the financial crisis.

—Agencies