By IRNA
London : Pressure mounted on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call an early general election next week with the opposition Conservative Party saying it would show “political cowardice” if he failed to do so.
“Clearly if he were to step back from having an election now, then dithering would have turned a degree of political cowardice on top because the expectation had been raised so high,” shadow foreign secretary William Hague said.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Hague said a delay would mean that the ruling Labour Party feared it could not win even during Brown’s “honeymoon period” that has followed since he replaced Tony Blair in June.
His taunting came as Conservative leader David Cameron was seeking to rallying support in his closing address to his party’s annual conference in Blackpool, north-west England.
On Tuesday, shadow defence secretary Liam Fox accused Brown of cynical electioneering and using British soldiers as a “political football” after he announced that 1,000 troops would be home from Iraq by Christmas during a surprise visit to Iraq.
Although the Conservatives are lagging in opinion polls, Labour is seen as having the most to lose by calling an early election less than half way through its third consecutive 5-year term.
Reports in the British press Wednesday suggested that the prime minister was most likely to announce a general election date of November 1 next Tuesday after making his planned statement on Iraq on Monday and bringing forward the government’s spending review.
The parliamentary news website epolitix said that electoral chiefs, trade unions and political parties were gearing up for the possibility of a snap general election.
The Mirror newspaper reported that Brown had already met the leaders of trade unions, which are affiliated to Labour, in a bid to secure Pnds 5 million (Dlrs 10 m) of funding.
“As Labour’s largest affiliate we must be in a position to play a leading role in re-electing Labour and defeating the Tories,” Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, the joint general secretaries the biggest Unite union, were quoted saying.
In a further sign that an election may be imminent, the Electoral Commission was reported to be sending out pre-election advice to returning officers.
Although Brown has until 2010 to call an election, positive showings in recent opinion polls have prompted speculation he might do so this autumn to gain his own personal mandate after replacing Blair over three months ago.