Britain's Brown enjoys poll bounce on back of crises

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has led his Labour Party to its biggest poll lead over the opposition since before the Iraq war, a survey showed today Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair on June 27, has helped give Labour a 10-point lead over the Conservative Party, a YouGov poll in the Sunday Times showed.

The poll -- and another also showing Labour ahead -- will fuel speculation that Brown will call an early general election.

Some analysts see a possible vote later this year or next, although many note his characteristic caution and do not expect him to rush.

Brown won approval in both polls for his handling of a recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease among cattle. He has also had to deal with a flooding crisis and attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow since he took over.

Labour climbed two points from last month to 42 per cent while the Conservative Party fell one point to 32 per cent. The Liberal Democrats, the third largest party, polled 14 per cent.

The lead is Labour's biggest in a YouGov survey since November 2002, before Blair's decision to back the US-led Iraq war prompted a collapse in support for the ruling party.

In a second poll by ICM for the Sunday Mirror, Labour scored a six-point lead over the Conservatives, polling 39 per cent against 33 percent for the main opposition party.

The Liberal Democrats were on 18 per cent.

If Britons voted at an election along the lines of the YouGov poll, Brown would add about 100 seats to the 66-seat majority Labour won at the 2005 election, the Sunday Times said.

Brown must go to the polls by 2010 although most analysts had expected him to call an election in 2009.

CONSERVATIVES STRUGGLE Brown's honeymoon has coincided with a reversal in the fortunes of Conservative leader David Cameron following a number of public relations gaffes and criticism within his party of his modernising crusade.

Most people in both polls praised Brown's handling of the foot and mouth outbreak. The disease has been confirmed on two farms in Surrey, southern England, but appears to have been contained.

It caused major damage to British farming and tourism in 2001 and Blair was criticised for his response.

Brown cut short the first vacation of his premiership to return to London and oversee the response to the outbreak, which more than three quarters of those polled by YouGov said Brown was handling well.

In the same poll, 65 per cent of people said Brown was doing a good job and only 17 per cent thought he was doing badly.

Only 29 per cent said Cameron was doing well while 55 per cent said he was doing badly, the poll said. In April, 54 percent thought Cameron was doing a good job.

Seventy-three percent also thought Brown was less close to US President George W Bush than Blair, suggesting Brown had struck the right tone for his domestic audience in his recent visit to Washington.

YouGov interviewed a representative sample of 1,956 voters across Britain online between Aug 9-10. ICM polled a random sample of 1,007 adults by phone on Aug 8-9.

REUTERS JT VC1750