British PM to take 'full responsibility' if he loses election

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday he would take "full responsibility" if his party loses tomorrow's general election, as ministers urged tactical voting to keep the Conservatives out.

With polls showing Mr Brown's Labour is heading for defeat tomorrow after 13 years in office, the embattled Premier insisted there was still all to play for as thousands of voters had not yet made up their minds.

But his comments - plus a call from two ministers for Labour supporters to vote tactically for the Liberal Democrats in some seats - are being seen as an admission of how much ground Labour must make up in just two days to win.

"I'll have to take responsibility and I will take full responsibility if anything happens but I still think there are thousands of people who have still to make up their minds," Mr Brown told GMTV.

He has previously indicated he would not stand down if he did not secure a majority, but his latest comments raise questions about whether he might quit and make way for a figure like Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

All three main party leaders have now embarked on a last-minute whirlwind of campaigning, flitting between swing seats across Britain.

Conservative leader David Cameron was in Northern Ireland ahead of a 24-hour "campaign for change" tour which will see him electioneering through the night and into today before a final campaign rally in Bristol, southwest England.

Mr Cameron said he was "fighting for change" and "fighting to win" the election in which opinion polls suggest his party will emerge winner, although not necessarily by a clear majority.

In fresh blows to Mr Brown's party yesterday, a Labour parliamentary candidate, Manish Sood, described him as Britain's "worst Prime Minister", while influential business newspaper the Financial Times switched its support to the Conservatives.

Two members of his Cabinet including close ally Ed Balls also suggested some Labour supporters should consider tactical voting to block Conservative candidates.

Election expert Professor John Curtice told Sky News that yesterday's comments were "a tacit acknowledgement that the Labour party is in electoral trouble".

But Mr Brown dismissed the suggestion, telling Channel Five television: "I am making it absolutely clear what my advice is. My advice is to vote Labour."

Mr Brown's centre-left Labour and the centrist Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg, are seen as closer to each other than either party is to the centre-right Conservatives.

And many Labour supporters disillusioned by the government's support for the Iraq war switched their support to the Liberal Democrats at the last general election in 2005.