UK Gordon Brown is aiming to go to the country in the spring of 2009, in spite of his recent references to Labour’s plans for policy delivery until 2010, the last possible date for the poll. Mr Brown’s allies have told the Financial Times that the working assumption is for a general election in May or June next year, giving the prime minister just over a year to reverse opinion polls which show Labour up to 10 points behind the Conservative party.
Labour’s mood on election timing has shifted sharply in the past few weeks. During the party’s run of blunders and bad news last autumn, many Labour MPs assumed Mr Brown would hold out until 2010 to try to recover lost ground.
