LONDON - If a week is a long time in politics, then this week -- when Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been drawn into a scandal over secret political donations -- has been very long indeed.
Riding high in the polls five months ago when he succeeded Tony Blair, Brown's popularity has slid in the past two months as his government has stumbled from one debacle to another.
The latest affair threatens to eclipse those that have gone before and, although analysts do not predict anything so dramatic as the fall of the government, it could have repercussions for Brown's long-term electoral prospects.
"The wider issue is whether this is turning into Labour's equivalent of 'Black Wednesday' -- a series of events that change the way that voters think about the government," said pollster and political analyst Peter Kellner, referring to a day in 1992 that scuppered the then Conservative government.
"I think the electorate is yet to decide."
Dubbed "Donorgate" by the media, the scandal revolves around more than 650,000 pounds of donations made to Brown's Labour Party by a property developer who gave the money via intermediaries to avoid being identified.
There is no suggestion Brown, a former finance minister, is linked to the money. But senior members of his cabinet and inner circle are, and the police have been asked to investigate.
Brown, 56, came to office pledging to restore trust in politics after Blair was tarnished by a debacle over "cash for honours" -- the alleged granting of peerages and titles in exchange for donations.
A major stumble came last month when Brown ruled out an early election in what the opposition Conservatives called a retreat after Labour lost a double-digit lead in opinion polls.
And coming in the wake of two other controversies -- a run on a British bank for the first time in 140 years and the loss of computer discs containing private details of half the nation -- a "follow the money" affair was the last thing Brown needed.
