Brown's woes grow with loss in Scotland

GLASGOW - Britain's governing party suffered a sobering election defeat in a Scottish stronghold yesterday, a personal rebuke to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from voters in one of the country's poorest districts at a time of growing economic uncertainty.

Delegates meet in September for the governing Labor Party's annual conference, but it's unlikely they will stage a revolt against Brown. Choosing a new leader for Labor would be a gamble, given the small pool of successors who could actually beat the charismatic Conservative leader David Cameron in a general election, due by 2010.

"I think the prime minister should have his [summer] holiday, but then I think we need an election," said Cameron. "I think we need change in this country, and that's how change should come about."

Some in Brown's own party even hinted he should resign before the next national election.

"We need a new start, and that can only come from a debate around the leadership. I hope those discussions will take place," said Graham Stringer, a Labor lawmaker.

For more than 50 years, the Labor Party had held the seat in its eastern Glasgow stronghold - a crime-infested maze of tenement housing where life expectancy is 63 years for men, the same average for Bangladesh. Unemployment has hovered at roughly 10 percent - twice the British national average - but around half of the working-age population is estimated to be jobless and receiving hefty government benefits.

"I wanted to send shock waves through the Labor Party, to send a message to tell them to do something for us," said John French, 45, who's unemployed and voted for the Scottish National Party in the special election, which was prompted by a Labor lawmaker's resignation due to health problems.

Labor's woes are reminiscent of the plight of the last Conservative government more than a decade ago - far behind in opinion polls and seemingly unable to win an election anywhere. That government, led by John Major, was swept away in a landslide in 1997 by Labor's charismatic and young Tony Blair.

The Labor Party's popularity has since waned with a backlash over the unpopular Iraq war and mounting economic woes confronting Brown, a Scotsman known for his serious but stiff demeanor and rumpled appearance.

"This is an indictment of what has gone wrong with Labor and what used to be known as the people's party," said John Mason, who captured the district's seat for the Scottish Nationalist Party.

"We understand and we hear people's concerns," Brown said yesterday, a day after the results from the Thursday ballot were announced. "We will do whatever is necessary over the next few months to help hard-working families through these difficult times."

Brown chose not to call an early general election last year - a decision that some say squandered his favorable ratings in the polls after his deft handling of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, flash floods, and failed terror attacks in London and Glasgow.