Election poll date claims are ‘nonsense’
Labour have attempted to quash persistent speculation Gordon Brown could call a general election as early as next month.
Douglas Alexander, the party’s election coordinator, said rumours of an immediate poll were “utter nonsense”, while the prime minister said he was concentrating on running the country.
During the summer lull, media reports have been mounting that Mr Brown will go to the polls early, either in spring 2008 or this October.
However, Mr Brown insisted today that he had spent the summer thinking about the long-term challenges facing the country, as well as the immediate concerns of the terror attacks, flooding and foot and mouth outbreak.
But speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he did not unequivocally rule out an early election.
Mr Brown said: “I have to say there will be no [election] announcement today.
“There will be a time and a place for a general election and it is not now.”
He said the Queen would be the first person he tells about an election and had, as yet, had no such conversation with her.
Earlier Ed Balls, schools secretary and Brown confidante, told GMTV’s Sunday programme: “I honestly don’t think Gordon Brown is sitting each day thinking ‘shall I call the election?’
“He’s been prime minister now for about ten weeks. If the public thought that Gordon Brown’s main calculation was ‘shall I dash for an election?’ I think they’d think he wasn’t really focused on the job.”
Speculation Mr Brown would seek his own mandate before 2009 began as soon as he moved in to Number 10, with the early appointment of Mr Alexander as election coordinator.
The prime minister has since performed strongly in opinion polls, with many predicting he would call an early election to capitalise on his own honeymoon period and exploit the Conservatives’ own summer floundering.
Yesterday, Mr Alexander insisted it was “nonsense” that the Labour Party was planning to announce the date of an election.
He accused the Conservatives of stoking the rumours themselves to detract from their own situation.
Mr Alexander said he read with “incredulity” the Conservative claim an election date was set to be announced this week.
He said: “If the election co-ordinator was in Afghanistan last week it doesn’t sound very likely that we’re declaring an election this week.
“The truth is the Conservatives are putting these stories out there to try and mask the fact that they’re in some real difficulties.”
Voters should take any further election speculation “with a pinch of salt,” he said.
“Ultimately my responsibility as election coordinator is to make sure that our party and our campaign is ready whenever the prime minister chooses for the country.
“I will make sure, working with my colleagues in the Cabinet and the party, that we are ready whenever the starting gun is fired.”
A major attraction of an early election for Mr Brown was his strong showing against Mr Cameron in the opinion polls, with some handing Labour a ten-point lead.
However, the latest polls, conducted after Mr Cameron returned from holiday, give the prime minister a less conclusive lead over the opposition.
A YouGov poll for GMTV placed Labour on 38 per cent and the Conservatives on 35 per cent, while the Liberal Democrats remain on 15 per cent.
And a ComRes poll for the Independent placed both of the main parties on 36 per cent after a two point rise of the Tories and one point fall for Labour.
Mr Cameron’s personal standing has also improved since his emphasis on crime and social breakdown. The number of Tory voters who said they would definitely vote for Mr Cameron has risen from 86 per cent to 92 per cent in a month.
