UK vote sends clear message to PM

LONDON, England (AP) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party was headed toward its worst local election defeat in four decades on Friday, fueling doubts about his ability to lead his party to victory in a general election.

Brown, whose credibility has been dented by accusations of dithering and economic blunders since he became leader in June, pledged to heed the warning from voters after his party lost more than 300 municipal council seats.

The Conservative Party made strong gains, crucially in its longtime weak spot in northern England, and looked set to wrest control of London's coveted mayoral position.

In the British capital, legislators predicted that eccentric former magazine editor Boris Johnson would triumph for the Conservatives, defeating Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone, who became the city's first elected mayor in 2000.

London mayor is one of the nation's most high-profile posts, controlling a budget of billions and charged with planning for the 2012 Olympics.

"It looks like Boris Johnson is ahead," Olympics minister Tessa Jowell told the British Broadcasting Corporation ."The people of London are telling us something, telling us their lives are very hard. They want us to take quick and clear notice of that."

Brown's poor results seem certain to embolden critics within his Labour Party who fear that the famously sullen former Treasury chief has little prospect of beating the Conservatives' charismatic and youthful leader, David Cameron, in a national election.

Cameron's Conservatives had champagne at the ready Friday, preparing to toast Johnson's predicted capture of London's City Hall.

"The ship of state is heading towards the rocks," Tory lawmaker Eric Pickles crowed, predicting that Brown would now put off a national election until the latest possible date in mid-2010.

In last year's local elections, Labour lost control of Scotland's regional government.

"I think these results are not just a vote against Gordon Brown and his government," Cameron said Friday. "I think they are a vote of positive confidence in the Conservative Party."

There was little Brown could do to put a positive spin on the losses. "It's clear to me that this has been a disappointing night, indeed a bad night for Labour," he said.

Partial results Friday from 157 local councils showed the Conservatives gaining 259 seats, with Labour losing 306. The Liberal Democrats gained 31 seats. Results of the London mayor's race were expected late Friday.

The BBC projected that the Conservatives would take 44 percent of the vote in England and Wales, putting it 20 points ahead of Labour. Brown's party was a point behind the Liberal Democrats, usually the country's third party, according to the BBC.

Brown was credited with overseeing Britain's longest stretch of postwar prosperity and enjoyed a strong start as prime minister when he took the post in June.

He claimed to represent substance after the slick Blair years and won praise for his deft handling of botched terror attacks in London and Glasgow. But Brown's brief honeymoon with voters ended abruptly when he anguished over, and then ruled out, a snap national election in October.

Since then, economic woes and Brown's own strategic blunders have conspired to send poll ratings for his Labour Party to a 20-year low.

Voters grumble over rising food and fuel prices, falling house values, tax changes that have hit blue-collar workers and the costly nationalization of mortgage lender Northern Rock.

Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University said Thursday's voting suggested the Conservatives had finally recovered from the 1992 currency crisis that drove Britain out of the European exchange rate mechanism and wrecked their reputation for economic competence.

But the Labour Party did follow up disastrous municipal results in 2004 with a strong national election victory only a year later. E-mail to a friend

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