Boost For Conservative Campaign

A new poll showing a dramatic plunge in the opposition Labour partys lead yesterday electrified the campaign for Britains May 1 election, turning what had seemed to be a certainty into an open race.

The ICM poll in The Guardian newspaper slashed Labours lead from 14 to just five points, the first time the oppositions advantage has fallen to single figures since November 1993.

Prime Minister John Major declined to comment, saying polls were of no use in determining how his campaign was going. But Conservative strategists said the poll showed Majors tactic of focussing on Europe was working despite splits in his own party over policy on a single European currency.

Conservative chairman Brian Mawhinney said the partys own private polls had shown Labours lead at less than 10 points every day in the past week well below published polls.

Opposition Labour Party leader Tony Blair also declined to comment, saying: Theres only one (poll) that counts thats the one on election day, he told a London news conference.

But Labour economics spokesman Gordon Brown pointed to a Gallup poll in Wednesdays Daily Telegraph putting Labour 21 points ahead, an increase of five points in a week, saying: Theres so many polls, you have to take them with a pinch of salt.

ICM defended its methods on Wednesday as other polling organisations urged caution, suggesting the result could prove to be a rogue and Labours support could bounce back.

But bookmakers William Hill said they had cut the odds on the Conservatives winning the May 1 election to 7-2 from 9-2.

Labours odds lengthened to 1-6 from 1-8 and the odds on a parliament with no overall majority were cut to 9-2 from 5-1.

Labour officials said on Tuesday night they were worried the six-week campaign was boring voters and playing into the hands of the Conservatives.

Labour believes this was exactly Majors intention when he called the campaign, the longest in 80 years, on March 17.

Blair tried to break through what aides called the media wall on Tuesday night, dispensing with prepared speeches to give an impassioned, unscripted appeal for a chance to govern.

The election is about the soul of this country, Blair said, calling on 700 supporters in a concert hall to the north to launch a crusade to change this country for the better in the eight days left to the May 1 poll.

Blair kept up the momentum on Wednesday, pledging to create a 1 billion ($1.63 billion) fund for innovative health and education projects from the proceeds of Britains lottery. But Major hit out at Labours plans to set up a separate parliament for Scotland.

Major attributes his come-from-behind performance to win the last election in 1992 to his staunch defence of Scotlands place in the UK and is determined to hammer home the same message as the 1997 campaign enters its last eight days.

At a news conference during a campaign visit to north-east Scotland, Major said Labours plans to devolve power to a parliament in Edinburgh would risk jobs and could lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom.