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Harry Potter Author Backs Labour PM Gordon Brown faces his party conference today, after winning the backing of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. She's donated £1m to the Labour Party. Sky's Joey Jones reports from Manchester. Harry Potter joins the Labor Party    

THE Conservatives have smashed through the 50 per cent barrier in the polls for the first time since Margaret Thatcher's heyday, a further blow to Gordon Brown's struggling leadership. An Ipsos MORI poll published today showed the Tories up four points on 52 per cent. The news comes amid reports that another member of the government is set to quit within days over Mr Brown's leadership. Eric Joyce, the Falkirk MP and parliamentary private secretary to John Hutton, the Business Secretary, is reportedly considering resigning after the Labour conference which begins this weekend. And James Purnell, the Work and Pensions...

Gordon Brown is to call on Barack Obama's aides to help fight the Conservative challenge at the next election, it has been claimed. Members of the Democratic presidential candidate's team are said to have been contacted to sound out the possibilty of work with the Labour Party. It is thought former advertising executive David Muir, who was hired by the Prime Minister earlier this year to revive his political fortunes, has come up with the plan. Mr Muir was said to be behind an article in which Mr Brown paid tribute to Mr Obama without mentioning John McCain, the Republican...

They claim that up to 45 MPs are prepared to put their names to the move against Mr Brown, which would place him under severe pressure in the run-up to Labour's annual conference, beginning in Manchester on Saturday. That would still be some way short of the 71 needed to force a contest. Leading opponents of Mr Brown said that their aim was to provoke a "substantial minority" of Cabinet ministers, numbering up to 10, into telling the Prime Minister: "The game is up." Their tactics came to light as the revolt against Mr Brown gathered pace, with eight MPs...

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Labour is heading for "utter destruction" at the next election under Gordon Brown's leadership, Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, has said. Mr Clarke said he would "not permit" the Prime Minister to lead the party to a catastrophic defeat. His intervention revived speculation last night that Mr Brown will face pressure to stand down or be openly challenged this autumn.

MPs too scared to talk about forced marriage 'in case they lose Muslim votes' Politicians are too scared to speak out against forced marriage in case they lose valuable Muslim votes, according to a veteran Labour MP. By Martin Beckford Religious Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 12:46AM BST 02 Sep 2008 Ann Cryer said politicians in areas with high Muslim populations, many of which are Labour heartlands, should be at the forefront of the campaign to stop young couples being made to wed against their will by their families. But she claimed that some politicians are afraid to speak out on...

Gordon Brown is being openly undermined by Cabinet ministers who are now publicly questioning his future as Prime Minister. The Labour Party has no option but to replace him as leader or face certain defeat at the next general election, said one. Should he be forced to step down, Mr Brown would be the first Prime Minister since Neville Chamberlain not to fight a general election "We cannot go any lower," the minister said, following Labour's disastrous defeat in the Glasgow East by-election, one of the biggest upsets in political history. "We are at rock bottom. The evidence is there...

Gordon Brown’s worst nightmare was realised early today as the Scottish National Party triumphed by taking Glasgow East, one of Labour’s safest seats. The hopes of Labour strategists that their disastrous run of electoral setbacks was about to end were dashed as the SNP’s John Mason achieved the enormous 22 per cent swing required to topple the long-time stronghold. Mr Mason, a Glasgow councillor, overturned a 13,507 Labour majority at the general election in 2005 to win by 365 votes from Labour’s Margaret Curran. Turnout was just over 42 per cent. Earlier in the day, Labour had requested a recount,...

Violent crime has doubled since Labour came to power a decade ago. Stabbings and assault in Britain are now common, if not daily occurrences; at night city centers are generally regarded as no-go areas; “feral” youths and gangs loitering the streets – often drunk on cheap alcohol – make many people too afraid to go for a walk on a summer evening. Every week yields up plenty of reasons why people have good reason to be scared in modern Britain. On Saturday evening 60-year old Stan Dixon, a former soldier, was attacked by youths, for asking them not to swear...

Labour is no longer the party trusted to bring in the health reforms that are need to safeguard the NHS for future generations... Barely one in five people believe the Labour party will deliver a better health service over the next ten years... It comes on the day Gordon Brown is to publish Lord Darzi's package of reforms to overhaul the way the NHS is run. The Prime Minister hopes the comprehensive review will transform Labour's fortunes and restore the party's reputation as guardians of the NHS on its 60th anniversary. After years of above-inflation increases in health spending, most...

Cameron hails by-election victory   Conservative leader David Cameron has hailed an "excellent result" in the Henley by-election, which saw Labour beaten into fifth place.Mr Cameron said his party's win showed people were starting to think of the Tories as an alternative government. But Gordon Brown - speaking a year after he became PM - said "by-elections come and by-elections go". Labour lost its deposit with just 1,066 votes - fewer than the BNP, Greens, Lib Dems and Tory victor John Howell. Mr Howell took the seat with 19,796 votes - a majority of 10,116 to the Lib Dem...

Almost two thirds of people now think Gordon Brown is a "liability," compared to only one in four people a year ago when he took over as Prime Minister. A year ago Mr Brown took over from Tony Blair but there has since been an almost total reversal in the fortunes of Labour and the Conservatives. A year ago when people were asked "who do you think will win the next election," 62 per cent said Labour and only 18 per cent said the Tories. But when asked the question now, today's poll reveals only 16 per cent think Labour...

Just two days before Gordon Brown marks a year since he took over as Prime Minister the gloomy survey also finds that only one in four people believe he has a chance of winning the next election. The ICM/Guardian poll put Labour on 25 per cent, down two points on last month. That is the lowest since ICM began polling in 1984. The Conservatives are on 45 per cent, their highest rating since 1988. The poll showed that 74 per cent of people think Mr Brown has been a change for the worse compared with Tony Blair. Only 24 per...

The Archbishop of York has blamed the Labour Government for creating a selfish and greedy society which has led to a decline in morals and community responsibility. Dr John Sentamu claimed the obligation to do the right thing is being replaced by the urge to buy the right thing, driven by a "rapacious consumerist appetite". He said Labour had come to power in 1997 promising rights and responsibilities but that this had led to individuals being granted limitless rights without any obligations. Dr Sentamu, who is second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the hierarchy of the Church of...

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party has registered its worst opinion poll showing since surveys began in 1943, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday. It said the YouGov poll showed Labour on 23 percent against 47 percent for the opposition Conservatives, underlining voter concerns about a slowing economy, rising fuel and food prices and a botched tax reform that have battered Brown's popularity. Last week, Labour lost a mid-term parliamentary seat to the Conservatives for the first time since 1978, the year before Margaret Thatcher defeated Labour to sweep to office. Coming after a drubbing in local elections earlier...

Labour support has slumped to its lowest level since polling began, according to a Telegraph survey. Gordon Brown's personal rating among voters is now the same as John Major's at his lowest point. In the first poll since last week's Crewe and Nantwich by-election, the YouGov survey puts Labour on 23 points and the Conservatives on 47 - a Tory lead of 24 points. In the last month Labour has fallen three points, despite handing out a tax cut to 22 million people in a bid to calm public anger over the abolition of the 10p tax band. The Conservatives...

CREWE, England: Voters in this old railway town in Britain's industrial Midlands sent a powerful message to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the governing Labor Party on Thursday, electing a Conservative candidate by a wide margin in a parliamentary constituency that had been a Labor bastion for decades. Overturning a Labor majority that had been more than 7,000 votes at the general election in 2005, the Conservative candidate, Edward Timpson, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Labor candidate, Tamsin Dunwoody. In the results of the by-election, which were announced in the early hours of Friday, the Conservative majority over Labor...

The fact that you already have several holes in your head doesn't mean you want another one. Imagine being Gordon Brown this weekend. You are still reeling from disastrous local election results and the loss of London to Boris Johnson. You trail a record 26 points behind David Cameron in the polls. Rebellion surges through your party's ranks: in Westminster, over the abolition of the 10p tax rate; in Scotland, over the proposed referendum on independence. Senior Labour figures say that there will be trouble - meaning a leadership challenge - if the party does not make serious progress by...

Boris Johnson has won the race to become the next mayor of London - ending Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign at City Hall. The Conservative candidate won with 1,168,738 first and second preference votes, compared with Mr Livingstone's 1,028,966 on a record turnout of 45%.

LONDON -- Britain's Labour Party suffered its worst local election defeat on record and lost control of London on Friday, forcing Prime Minister Gordon Brown to rethink his strategy to avoid losing the next national poll. Conservative Boris Johnson, a journalist-turned-lawmaker prone to gaffes, wrested the prized post of London mayor from Labour's maverick Ken Livingstone, who has run the sprawling metropolis of some 7.5 million people since 2000. The election results were a major blow to Brown, who enjoyed a brief honeymoon with voters after he took over from Tony Blair, but has since been beset by economic turmoil,...

Boris Johnson has been elected Mayor of London, adding to Labour's misery after disastrous local elections. The Conservative candidate beat Ken Livingstone with Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick in third place. Mr Johnson polled 1,168,738 votes to Mr Livingstone's 1,028,966. After second preferences were allocated, Mr Johnson achieved around 53% to Mr Livingstone's 47%. The result put further pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown after his party suffered its worst council election results in four decades. After the result was announced, the new mayor thanked his team and praised his opponents, particularly Mr Livingstone who he described as a "very considerable...

LONDON (AP) — An eccentric Conservative lawmaker appeared likely to become London's next mayor after an election that brought only gloom Friday for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Labour Party. Brown's first test at the polls Thursday brought Labour its worst local election results in four decades; his credibility has been dented by accusations of dithering and economic blunders since he became leader last June. The party lost more than 300 municipal council seats and the Conservatives made strong gains in its longtime weak spot in northern England. In London, bookmakers and legislators alike predicted former magazine editor Boris...

Illegal immigrants are leaving the country in search of warmer weather and better health care (file picture) Failed asylum seekers are sneaking out of Britain - because they are fed up with the poor healthcare and bad weather. Scores have been caught trying to break past border controls in recent weeks, according to immigration staff. The majority of those who have been found are from Afghanistan and Iraq, said Les Williams, a chief immigration officer for the UK Border Agency.

Elections: U.K. voters resoundingly rejected the Labour Party in local elections last week. It was no capricious shift, but a citizen revolt against trendy carbon and nanny-state taxes that empower only bad government.For Labour, it was the worst election in 40 years. In a massive turnout, the Conservative Party took 256 seats in parliament, along with control of 12 town councils and 44% of the vote. Labour and moderate Liberal Democrats got to split the remains, and even the Liberal Democrats ,with 25%, won more than Labour. Best of all, London's 5.5 million voters threw out Labour's biggest bum: Marxist...

The government's attempts to placate Muslims will cause long-term damage to communities, a charity said yesterday. The warning came from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, chair and co-founder of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy, a new organisation claiming to represent the "silent majority who feel no conflict between their faith and democracy". Speaking before the launch, attended by Baroness Kishwer Faulkner and former Islamist Ed Husain, the journalist said the government was pandering to Muslims by granting too many concessions, fuelling their separation from the rest of society. "The government has found a way of placating Muslims in a way that will...

Boris Johnson has won the race to become the next mayor of London - ending Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign at City Hall.

Conservative leader David Cameron has hailed the local election results as a "big moment" for the party. Mr Cameron said the results marked a positive vote for his party, not just a protest against the government. He said that a Boris Johnson win in the London mayor race - now widely tipped - would be "enormously important". The Conservatives have made over 190 gains in council seats with Labour likely to be pushed into third place by the Liberal Democrats. Speaking to reporters outside his London home, Mr Cameron said: "I think this is a very big moment for the...

Gordon Brown says it has been a "bad and disappointing" election for Labour, as the party suffers its worst council results in at least 40 years. BBC research suggests Labour won 24% of votes cast in England and Wales, behind the Tories on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%. So far Labour has lost 310 councillors and key councils like Reading. Tory gains include Bury and North Tyneside. Mr Brown insists his party will learn lessons. David Cameron called it a "big moment" for the Conservative Party. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said his party had "regained momentum" by gaining...

The Labor Party was headed for a third-place finish in local elections in Britain in early results Friday morning. The big winner was the Conservative Party, The Telegraph reported. The party's campaign headquarters said it expected to top its goal of picking up 200 seats on local councils. The big loser was Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the newspaper said. The local elections were his first big test with voters since he succeeded Prime Minister Tony Blair last year. "Gordon Brown has had his 'Life on Mars' moment," a Conservative spokesman said. "He went to sleep in 2008 and today he's...

Election latest: David Cameron inflicts worst drubbing in 40 years The Conservatives made sweeping gains across the country early today as voters gave Gordon Brown a huge rebuff in his first electoral test as Prime Minister. David Cameron chalked up important successes in the North, the Midlands and the South, securing his top target of Bury in Greater Manchester and taking control of Nuneaton and Bedworth, and Southampton. The Conservatives also took seats in Labour strongholds of Sunderland and Wigan. Labour suffered one of its worst electoral humiliations, with its national share of the vote dropping to 24 or 25...

Gordon Brown faces the first electoral test of his premiership today, with Labour chiefs braced for the party’s worst showing at the polls in a generation. Ministers fear the loss of London and scores of council seats across the country as voters cast the first ballots since Mr Brown was anointed Prime Minister and ducked an early general election. Labour strategists fear that the party could record its lowest share of the vote in local elections since the 1970s, falling as low as 25 per cent and finishing third behind the Tories and Liberal Democrats - a humiliation for Mr...

LONDON - Support for the Labour Party slumped to a 25-year low on Sunday with voters disillusioned over Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the economy against a backdrop of worldwide financial turmoil. Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron, gearing up for an important test of voter support in local council elections, was the main beneficiary -- but his party warned that it had little room to manoeuvre over any possible tax cuts. A national election does not have to be held until 2010, but the next major test for Cameron and Brown comes in local council elections in May. After...

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour Party have slumped to their lowest poll score against the main opposition Conservatives for 25 years, according to a survey published Sunday. A YouGov survey for The Sunday Times put Labour on 27 percent, its lowest rating since 1983, while the Conservatives scored 43 percent. If a general election were to take place now, the poll scores would translate into a landslide majority for the Conservatives. Brown's personal approval rating has dropped to its lowest since he succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister in June, the survey showed. It was...

A novelist's revenge on Tony Blair In 'The Ghost,' a (familiar) recently retired British PM is rumoured to be a CIA agent MARK STEYN | March 6, 2008 | If ever there was a solid Tony Blair voting bloc it was surely the massed ranks of British novelists. They loathed Thatcher ("Mrs. Torture," as the pre-fatwa Salman Rushdie used to call her), yet "old Labour," with its knuckle-dragging union bosses and old-school class warfare, wasn't entirely their bag, either. Solution: Tony Blair's Third Way. He was "New Labour," just like Bill Clinton was New Democrat. It was all the rage...

Over the past two decades, Britain has been through a revolution. The extent of the change, in both scale and speed, has probably been unique in the peacetime history of our country....Globalisation, mass immigration and economic upheaval have helped to transform the fabric of our nation....Today, we are one of the most culturally and racially diverse places in Europe. These changes have been the subject of noisy debate...yet it is a curious irony that...one voice has been largely absent: that of the white working class.... the voices of the British working-class public have been all but ignored. Given that they...

From The Sunday TimesJanuary 20, 2008 Peter Hain ‘sails close to wind’ with more donations Jonathan Oliver and Marie Woolf PETER HAIN has been accused of “sailing close to the wind” over a string of campaign donations each for £1,000 - just 1p below the threshold at which they would have had to be declared. The embattled work and pensions secretary - who is also the Welsh secretary - received the cheques from wealthy businessmen who were asked at a dinner in Cardiff to support Hain’s bid for the deputy leadership of the Labour party. The Cabinet minister is already...

NEW LABOUR DONATIONS ALLEGATIONSLabour is facing fresh pressure over disguised donations after it was reported party officials had helped draw up legal agreements underpinning the practice in 2003. The Guardian newspaper said "middle-ranking officials" sought approval from lawyers and senior colleagues for covenants used by David Abrahams to conceal his identity. Scotland Yard is investigating how the property developer was able to channel hundreds of thousands of pounds through third parties to keep his name from regulators. Mr Abrahams suggested at the weekend that about 10 party figures were aware of the practice - renewing speculation about who knew within...

LABOUR HIT BY A NEW SCANDAL ON DONATIONS YET another Labour Cabinet Minister has admitted failing to declare political cash donations. Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain was forced to apologise for gifts to his unsuccessful deputy leadership campaign “not registered as they should have been”. The undeclared money is thought to run into tens of thousands of pounds. “This is extremely regrettable and I apologise,” he said. Last week, Mr Hain admitted failing to register a £5,000 donation from Labour’s election fundraiser Jon Mendelson. Last night, Mr Hain revealed that a number of other donations had also not been...

Don't quit, Brown begs Scottish Labour leader as she faces criminal investigation into sleaze rowGordon Brown has begged one of his key allies not to quit as she faces a criminal investigation into an illegal donation from a millionaire tax exile. Two police forces and the Electoral Commission have launched official inquiries after Wendy Alexander, Labour's leader in Scotland, admitted breaking the law by accepting the money for her leadership campaign. The Prime Minister is said to fear that if she resigns it will spark a "domino effect" - forcing Labour ministers to stand down over the secret donations scandal...

The focus of the sleaze scandal engulfing the Government switched dramatically last night to the Labour Party's second biggest donor - an Iranian-born car dealer who is not even entitled to vote in general elections. Mahmoud Khayami, a French citizen, has given a total of £830,000 in the past eight months, making him Labour's biggest individual backer after Lord Sainsbury.

...The latest scandal developed, inconveniently for the Prime Minister, at a time when his five-month-old administration was already reeling from a series of crises. The weeks since Mr Brown's last-minute decision, on October 5, not to call a November general election, have seen one of the most spectacular political falls from grace ever recorded. ...and despite Mr Brown's desperate attempt to regain the initiative yesterday with his speech on party funding to Labour's National Policy Forum, the inevitable conclusion is that Donorgate has done serious, lasting damage to his premiership. His, and Labour's, greatest fear is that further damaging disclosures...

The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under­funding and cutbacks, a leaked Whitehall report has revealed. With an "under-resourced" fleet composed of "ageing and operationally defective ships", the Navy would struggle even to repeat its role in the Iraq war and is now "far more vulnerable to unexpected shocks", the top-level Ministry of Defence document says. The report was ordered by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, who had intended to use it to "counter criticism" on the state of the Navy in the media and from opposition parties. Royal Navy ships arriving for...

ERRORS IN DATA LOSS APOLOGY LETTERS HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has made a series of mistakes as it tries to apologise to parents for the loss of their personal details in the post, the Tories disclosed. Conservative MPs have been contacted by parents concerned that HMRC - already reeling from the lost benefits discs fiasco - has been sending them the details of other parents. It is the latest embarrassing revelation for the Government following the loss of the entire child benefit database of 25 million people. It was contained on two computer discs which went missing in transit...

Brown admits donations 'unlawful'Gordon Brown has said donations to the Labour Party by a property developer through middlemen were "completely unacceptable" and would be repaid. He told reporters he had had "no knowledge" of more than £600,000 of donations from David Abrahams, which could "not be justified". "The money was not lawfully declared so it will be returned," he said. Harriet Harman has also pledged to return £5,000 she received "in good faith" for her deputy leadership bid. Labour's general secretary Peter Watt resigned on Monday after it emerged that Mr Abrahams donated the money to the party over four...

Labour sleaze scandal: Now four Cabinet Ministers in the firing lineFour Cabinet ministers are today entangled in the new sleaze crisis engulfing Labour as the threat of criminal prosecutions was raised for the first time. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, deputy leader Harriet Harman, Aid Secretary Douglas Alexander and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn are all facing questions after being on the receiving end of gifts. In a highly significant move, the Crown Prosecution Service has been called in to give advice. The CPS, whose job is to decide when prosecutions are brought for suspected breaches of the law, has held talks...

POLL PUTS TORIES IN 13-POINT LEADGordon Brown has been hit by fresh opinion poll woe as the Tories moved into a 13-point lead - their biggest advantage for almost two decades and enough for a 64-seat Commons majority. Although David Cameron's opposition dropped one point to 40%, the Prime Minister's party suffered a six-point slump to 27% in the wake of a series of crises for the Government. The ComRes survey for The Independent put the Tories ahead of Labour in every age band, social group and UK region other than 18-24 year olds and Scotland. Not since Margaret Thatcher...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq. Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies. Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it. Rudd said...

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has conceded defeat in the national election as the Labour Party assumes control of Parliament. Perhaps America's staunchest defender of the global war on terror among world leaders, Howard now gives way to Kevin Rudd, and may find himself out of government altogether. Howard may be the first PM to lose his own seat in almost 80 years: Australian prime minister John Howard's 11 year reign has ended with a landslide election victory for the opposition Labour Party. Kevin Rudd, the former diplomat, was set to become Australia's 26th prime minister, less than a year...

CONFIDENCE IN LABOUR 'PLUMMETS' The Government will face fresh questions over the loss of millions of voters' personal data amid evidence the debacle has helped fuel a massive slump in public confidence. One poll showed those backing Labour's ability to handle economic problems had been more than halved to 28%, with just a quarter deeming Gordon Brown's administration "competent and capable". And another gave the Tories a nine-point overall lead, its strongest position for 15 years, just weeks after Labour enjoyed an 11-point advantage in the same poll. The revelation that two CDs containing the information, including bank details, had...