Election win boosts Britain's Gordon Brown

Britain's ruling Labour Party won a parliamentary election in Scotland yesterday in a sign that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the financial crisis has turned around his political fortunes.

Just months ago, some Labour members openly questioned Mr Brown's leadership after the party lost a string of elections and fell 20 points behind the opposition Conservatives in the opinion polls.

But Mr Brown's determined handling of the banking meltdown has cut the Conservative lead to nine points, despite economists warning that Britain is on the brink of recession. Thursday's election for a parliamentary seat in Scotland, where Labour's main rival is the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), provided the first firm evidence at the ballot box of a "Brown bounce". The SNP reduced Labour's majority in Glenrothes, a former coal-mining area bordering Mr Brown's own constituency, but it held on to the seat by a margin of more than 6,700 votes.

The comfortable margin came as a surprise as bookmakers had tipped the SNP, which overturned a huge Labour majority in another parliamentary election in Scotland in July, to win.

"With Gordon Brown interest rates are at a record low, helping hard-working families... With Gordon Brown, Labour has won here in Glenrothes," Labour candidate Lindsay Roy, the head teacher at Mr Brown's old school, said in his victory speech. The election was held on Thursday as the Bank of England slashed British interest rates by 1.5 points to three per cent, the lowest in more than 50 years to try to avert a deep recession.

Some analysts suggest a Labour victory in Glenrothes could tempt Mr Brown to call a snap parliamentary election before the economy worsens. He does not have to do so until mid-2010.