Leaders resort to mudslinging as opinion polls favour Tories

London: Britain's political leaders launched personal attacks against each other on Sunday ahead of Thursday's parliamentary election, with opinion polls showing support growing for the opposition Conservative Party.

Although no new poll has indicated the centre-right Conservatives winning an outright majority, ruling Labour's 13 years in power appears set to end.

The party which swept to power in an overwhelming victory under Tony Blair in 1997 faces coming a humiliating third place on May 6 in the popular vote behind the much smaller Liberal Democrats.

Conservative leader David Cameron called Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown a "shrunken figure", while Brown likened Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to a "TV gameshow" presenter.

An Angus Reid opinion poll for the Sunday Express newspaper put Conservative Party support at 35 per cent, 12 points ahead of third-placed centre-left Labour. Although the pollster has tended to score Labour lower, the survey adds to four polls on Saturday indicating growing Conservative backing.

"I think we've got some momentum now..." Conservative leader David Cameron said in a BBC interview on Sunday.

No polls have the Conservatives with enough to win outright, indicating a coalition government as the most likely outcome, a rarity in Britain with its first-past-the-post electoral system, and a situation not seen since 1974.

The financial markets have been nervous about a such a coalition administration or a minority government, fearing an uncertain period of horse-trading at a time of a record budget deficit of more than 11 per cent of GDP. In an interview in the Observer newspaper, Brown admitted Labour was the "underdog", and yesterday was on a 10 stop tour around London.

"I'm fighting for my life, but I'm not fighting for myself, I'm fighting for the British people," he said at a south London community centre. The third-largest party, the centrist Liberal Democrats, or Lib Dems, have gained in popularity after leader Nick Clegg gave polished performances in a series of US-style television debates, and his support could be key in a coalition government.

But there was little sign of any overtures by political leaders to their rivals, as all three parties insisted they were focusing on winning a clear majority.

"We're talking about the future of our country. We're not talking about who's going to be the next presenter of a TV gameshow," Labour leader Prime Minister Gordon Brown said of telegenic Clegg in an interview in the Observer. Cameron in turn launched an attack on Brown.

"And what a shrunken figure Gordon Brown now cuts. Once hailed as an economic colossus and political genius, he resorts to desperate smears and hysterical scares," Cameron told Sunday Telegraph.

Clegg appeal: Seeks an overhaul of British politics

Opposition Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has appealed for an overhaul of British politics, saying he wanted changes to an electoral system that has kept the country's Labour and Conservative parties in power for generations.

Clegg's perennially number three party has done spectacularly well in the polls, throwing the British electoral contest wide open in one of the most exciting races in decades.

Clegg is still not expected to capture enough seats in the May 6 election to win a majority in Parliament, and speculation has centered on who Clegg might choose to form a coalition.

The party leader said his focus was on electoral reform, and proceeded to talk up the gulf between himself and Tory leader David Cameron, who has resisted such change.

"There's such momentum behind the reforms we're talking about," Clegg said during an interview aboard his campaign bus on Saturday as it travelled through southwest England and Wales.

— AP