LONDON (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday refused to rule out holding a general election in the coming months amid speculation he may gamble and seek an early mandate for his new government.
Brown repeatedly declined to say outright that he will not call a snap poll soon, in a BBC radio interview.
"There will be no announcement today. There will be a time and a place for a general election but it is not now," he said, when asked to rule out an election in the coming months.
Under his predecessor Tony Blair, Brown's governing Labour Party won the May 2005 general election with a comfortable majority.
That mandate runs for five years. However, British prime ministers can call an election at any time, and have usually done so after four years in recent decades.
Brown took over from Blair on June 27 and the main opposition Conservatives, at the time ahead in opinion polls for the first time in years, quickly urged Brown to seek a mandate of his own.
However, Labour have recovered their poll lead since Brown took over, making an early election seem more appealing.
"I think by the way I've tried to do the job in the last few months that what's been on my mind is doing the job well," Brown said when pressed about the chances of an election soon.
He listed the failed car bombings in June, floods in July, the foot and mouth outbreak in August, Iraq and global financial turbulence as having occupied his time.
"If there were to be an election, the first person I would tell... would be Her Majesty the Queen and I have not done that.
"There will be time an a place for these things but I'm getting on with the business of governing.
"What's on my mind is making this country successful in the future."
In an interview published Monday in The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Brown refused to repeat his previous assertion that new party leaders did not need to seek a fresh mandate from the public when they became prime minister.
A ComRes survey in The Independent newspaper Monday put the two parties on 36 percent. Backing for the Liberal Democrats was at 15 percent.
Separately, a new YouGov poll for GMTV television put Labour on 38 percent, the Conservatives on 35 percent, and the Lib Dems on 15 percent.
YouGov questioned 2,154 adults between August 29 and 31, while ComRes interviewed 1,016 adults between August 29 and 30.
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