LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown came under pressure to set out a clear vision of where he wants to take Britain on Sunday after a poll showed opposition Conservatives enjoying their strongest support for 15 years.
The poll giving the Conservatives a 7-point lead over Brown's Labour Party capped a bruising week for Brown in which he was pilloried for a U-turn over an early election and accused by the Conservatives of stealing their policies.
Brown enjoyed a honeymoon with voters during his first 100 days after taking over from Tony Blair but his comfortable 11-point poll lead has been wiped out.
The latest ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph showed the Conservatives on 43 per cent with Labour trailing on 36.
The setbacks for Brown have sparked criticism that he lacks what former U.S. President George Bush famously referred to as "the vision thing".
"The key challenge for us -- and Gordon has rightly identified this -- it's a vision thing," business minister John Hutton told the BBC on Sunday. "What we have got to do now is set out our vision for the next 10 years."
Former cabinet member and Blair ally Lord Falconer said Labour, in power for the last decade, had to make clear its vision for Britain.
"Because if we rely on experience and our ability to handle crises and do not set out, in the coming months, our vision for the future of the UK ... then we will be offering drift not leadership," he wrote in The Sunday Times.
ELECTION CLIMBDOWN
