BRITAIN:British prime minister Gordon Brown is reportedly ready to reclaim the political initiative and relaunch his government after a predicted night of Labour losses in the English and Welsh local elections.
Today's measure of success for Conservative leader David Cameron will be close to 200 gains and a general-election-winning 40 per cent plus share of the popular vote. The icing on the cake for Mr Cameron would be victory for Boris Johnson over Ken Livingstone in the battle for London mayor, while success for Mr Livingstone could do much to steady morale among increasingly nervous and rebellious backbench Labour MPs.
Londoners will have to wait until this evening to learn the results of the mayoral and assembly elections, where voter turnout and second preference votes will prove decisive.
A final YouGov poll for the London Evening Standard showed Boris Johnson's previous lead over Mr Livingstone narrowing as voters battled occasional storms and heavy downpours to cast their actual votes in the most keenly contested battle for mayor since the post was created by the first Blair government.
According to YouGov, Mr Johnson was on 53 per cent to the incumbent mayor's 47 per cent. But with as many as 11 per cent declaring themselves still undecided, Mr Livingstone said he expected to win the final run-off "by 52 to 48 per cent".
In the battle for the London assembly the poll had the Conservatives on 40 per cent, with Labour on 33 per cent and the Lib Dems trailing at 14 per cent, while the Greens and the far right BNP both had real prospects of winning seats. Mr Brown appealed to voters not to punish Labour, while recognising families were facing "a tough year" with soaring food, fuel and mortgage bills. The appeal came after an earlier acknowledgement that he had made mistakes in the handling of the abolition of the starter 10p tax rate.