Labour vows to learn lessons of defeat

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - The Labour party pledged on Saturday to learn lessons from a crushing defeat in local elections that newspapers said may signal the beginning of the end for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government.

One Labour MP said ministers were involved in talks on whether there should be a challenge to Brown's 11-month-old leadership. However, most analysts believe a challenge to Brown so soon after he assumed the leadership is very unlikely.

Labour lost the prestigious post of mayor of London to the Conservatives, capping its worst local election defeat on record.

Brown was preparing to unveil a new legislative programme, possibly as early as next week. The government gave no specific plans of how it would respond, but Brown was due to give television interviews on Sunday.

Columnist Jonathan Freedland, writing in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper, said Labour appeared to be "about to enter the twilight" after 11 years in power.

The Conservatives, who lost the last three parliamentary elections, were elated after winning an estimated 44 percent of the vote to Labour's 24 percent.

"We've shown there is an alternative. We must now prove it," Conservative leader David Cameron said.

If the results were repeated at the next parliamentary election, which Brown must call by mid-2010, the Conservatives would win a landslide 130-seat majority in parliament.