A CONSERVATIVE VIEW

by RAY FLEMING
I WAS delighted to find that over the past few days I have not been the only person on Majorca who thinks that Gordon Brown is not finished and might actually win the next election for Labour. The fact that the other person holding that view was Michael Portillo naturally increased my pleasure. When Humphrey Carter asked him in his Bulletin interview, “Is Gordon Brown going to go? “ Mr Portillo replied: “My guess is he'll survive to fight and win the next election for the Labour Party.” Confirmation that such an outcome is not just the delusional view of a few political eccentrics came yesterday in the Guardian/ICM poll which showed that Labour actually gained five points in the past month while the Conservatives lost three points. The parties stand at 39-34 in the Conservatives' favour - a lead which Mr Portillo also pointed out would be insufficient to give Mr Cameron a majority in the House of Commons. Even those of us who think that Mr Brown is doing a reasonable job in difficult circumstances are hard put to explain how the Conservatives can lose public support while Labour is obviously not at its best. Other polls may give a more favourable result, but if Mr Cameron cannot clearly do better during the coming few weeks when Labour may face parliamentary defeats and show poorly in local elections, it may be him, not Mr Brown, whose future is in doubt.