Gordon Brown faces calls for early elections

London, Jan 10 (UNI) Chancellor Gordon Brown, who is expected to take over from Tony Blair this summer, is facing calls to go in for early elections once he is Prime Minister.

Tory leader David Cameron has been asking Mr Brown to seek mandate from voters to rule, but now a majority of the public seems to want a general election as well.

There is also bad news for Mr Brown with the Tories having gained a substantial lead over Labour Party in popularity polls as the satisfaction with the government is at a new low of 15 per cent.

But Mr Brown can ignore the demand. There are precedents of change in the leadership midway. Much would depend on whether Mr Brown can quickly restore people's trust in his government.

If he succeeds, the Tories would hesitate to press for elections.

There is a feeling that Mr Brown would gain public confidence because he has been preparing for the take-over for some months and has already a large number of advisers for both domestic and foreign policies.

Peter Riddle of The Times said there might be a Brown honeymoon, boosting Labour in the polls, but he would want to be sure that this was firmly based before risking an election.

The poll showed that 56 per cent of all voters, including 76 per cent of Tory supporters, want an election soon after Mr Blair's successor takes over. This could mean later this year or next year.

However, less than two fifths (38 per cent) believe that the new Prime Minister should continue until 2009 or 2010 before holding a general election. Only Labour voters, by 58 to 40 per cent, favour a later election.

''A small chink of light for Mr Brown is that, for the first time, the Tory lead narrows rather than increases when his name is mentioned. In the past, when leaders' names were linked to their parties in asking about votes at the next election, the Tories under Mr Cameron have done better than under the normal question about voting intentions. Now, the figure for the Tories is unchanged at 39 per cent and Labour under Mr Brown is at 34 per cent, against 32 per cent otherwise,'' Mr Riddle said.

UNI