LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ruled out an early election on Saturday in what the opposition Conservatives called a humiliating retreat after polls showed his lead over them had evaporated.
Brown, who took over from Tony Blair three months ago, had allowed his Labour Party to fan speculation in recent weeks that he would hold an early election when opinion polls showed Labour far ahead of its Conservative opponents.
Polls had given Brown a lead of up to 11 points after he had to deal with floods, a terrorism scare and outbreaks of livestock disease. However, his lead vanished abruptly last week when the Conservatives rallied in response to election speculation.
Early editions of Sunday's News of the World newspaper, available late on Saturday, published polls from battleground constituencies showing Brown would lose his majority in parliament if a vote were held now.
Another survey conducted for the Sunday Times by YouGov gave the Conservatives a three-point lead over Labour -- 41 percent to 38 percent -- with Liberal Democrats on 11 percent.
"I'll not be calling an election and let me explain why. I have a vision for change in Britain and I want to show people how in government we are implementing it," Brown told the BBC.
He denied he was afraid of losing. "We would win an election in my view whether we had it this week, next week or later."
"SHAMBOLIC PERFORMANCE"
Opponents were scathing. Conservative leader David Cameron spoke of an "absolutely shambolic performance" by Brown.
