Brown defends record

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his handling of the economy after his Labor government received a double dose of bad news in opinion polls Sunday that saw its popularity plunging.

The polls showed that Brown had been hurt by a banking debacle and the country's biggest-ever identity fraud crisis.

Brown, who just two months ago had been contemplating calling an election two years earlier than he needed to, urged disillusioned voters to take a long-term view.

"You always have events to deal with. Sometimes these are decisions that you have to make where you have to react to events in other parts of the world or events over which you have no control yourself," Brown said.

"The question at the end of the day is that people should take a long-term view of what you are trying to achieve," Brown told BBC Television at the Commonwealth summit he is attending in Uganda.

Two months ago, Brown's Labor Party enjoyed a 12 percentage point lead over the opposition Conservatives.

The lead was wiped out Sunday in a News of the World opinion poll -- they were both running neck-and-neck on 38 percent.

The poll also gave Conservative leader David Cameron an eight percentage-point lead over the prime minister -- he was on 46 percent compared with 38 percent for Brown.