UK punters bet against Labour after "bigot" gaffe

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's punters have been betting against Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour party securing a majority win in next week's election after he called a woman voter a "bigot" during a campaign walkabout in northern England on Wednesday.

Labour's odds moved out to 46-1, their lowest level of support, just hours after Brown was caught making the unguarded comment in his car as he drove away from a discussion on economic policy and immigration with the voter in Rochdale.

"There's no doubt in what the punters are saying: Brown has royally messed up this time," Betfair spokesman Mike Robb said in a statement.

"Labour are at their lowest point ever in the betting."

The odds on Labour winning a majority in the May 6 election widened from 30-1 before the encounter. They were the longest odds since a book was opened shortly after the last election in 2005.

The main opposition Conservatives gained most from the gaffe with their chances of securing a majority up 5 percentage points from 2-1 to 13-8.

Bets on a hung parliament, where no one party has an overall majority, narrowed 3 percentage points to 4-6.

Opinion polls have increasingly pointed to a hung parliament.

Brown's Labour Party trails the opposition Conservatives and, in some polls, the third force Liberal Democrats.

(Writing by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Keith Weir)