British leaders in last-ditch push for swing voters

Britain's party leaders pushed into the final days of campaigning today for what looks set to be the closest general election in decades.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, struggling to hold on to power, campaigned in a close-fought seat in eastern England while David Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservatives who lead polls, was in the northwest.

While Britain is on a national holiday, the knife-edge fight is increasingly focused on swing voters in the few dozen key marginal seats which could determine the outcome of the election. The result in each is too close to call.

Under Britain's political system, the party which wins an overall majority of seats in the House of Commons can form a government.

However, opinion polls suggest that no one party may be able to do that after Thursday's election, leading to a hung parliament for the first time since 1974.

Cameron Sunday outlined plans for his first 100 days in power including an emergency budget and setting up an Afghanistan "war cabinet", prompting Labour to suggest he was taking victory for granted.

But Cameron denied this today, saying: "There has never been an ounce of complacency in my body and there isn't now and there is everything left to do."

Ben Page of pollsters Ipsos MORI told BBC radio that there were a larger number of voters than usual this time round who had not made up their minds.

"There's certainly lots of evidence that more people say they might change their minds at the last minute," he said.

Page added that a new poll done for Thomson Reuters suggested that "around four out of 10 people in marginals might change their mind" between now and polling day.

"That is higher (than before)," he said. "We also know from previous elections that up to one person in 10 might change their mind at the polling booth".

A Sun newspaper/YouGov daily opinion poll Monday gave the Conservatives 34 percent, unchanged, the Liberal Democrats 29 percent, up one percent, and Labour 28 percent, unchanged.