Political leaders criss-crossed Britain in search of votes on Monday as another opinion poll suggested that, despite anger over Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair will win Thursday's election. With four days to go before a vote which could put Blair into Downing Street for an historic third term, party leaders targeted marginal constituencies - areas of the country where a few hundred votes could swing the vote one way or another. Blair was in south-east England, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy in the south-west while Conservative leader Michael Howard went to the north-west before dashing back to London to address a party rally.
The prime minister, seeking to become the first Labour leader in history to win three elections, was flanked by his finance minister Gordon Brown. They are trying to get voters to move on from the Iraq war and concentrate on the economy, which has been buoyant since they came to power in 1997.
But the spectre of Iraq, which has dominated media coverage of the campaign in the past week, returned to haunt Blair with news a British soldier had been killed by a roadside bomb near the southern Iraqi city of Al Amarah.
He was the 83rd British soldier to die since March 2003 in a conflict most Britons opposed and many believe was illegal.
"It underlines once again the extraordinary work and sacrifice that British armed forces are making in Iraq, to help Iraq become a stable and democratic country that's no longer a threat to its region and the world," Blair said.
"We should be immensely grateful for the work they do," he told his daily news conference.
Polls show Iraq is not high among voters' priorities, but there has been persistent controversy over the war, and Howard has called him a liar and questioned his trustworthiness.
The row appears to have done little to dent Blair's dominance.
A YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph newspaper put Labour on 36 percent, the main opposition Conservatives on 33 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 24 percent.
That would suggest Blair is on course for a comfortable victory but with a substantially reduced parliamentary majority from his current 161 seats.
The poll was conducted between April 29 and May 1. Other polls in the past few days have shown Labour with leads of 3 to 8 percentage points over the Conservatives.
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