Poll rout raises questions over British PM's future

LONDON (AFP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is battling to steady his Labour Party's nerves after its worst election defeat for 40 years, but the rout raises serious questions about his future, commentators say.

The British prime minister was left reeling by local polls that saw the main opposition Conservative Party surge back into town halls in England and Wales and even oust eight-year London mayor Ken Livingstone from office.

But while nobody expects Brown to go anytime soon, some see the May 1 polls -- 11 years to the day after Tony Blair led Labour into power -- as presaging the beginning of the end for the party's hold on national power.

"Just as the local elections of 1995 marked the draining of (then premier) John Major's authority, so those of 2008 announce the sands are running out for Brown," said Martin Kettle of the normally sympathetic ...