Local election loss bitter blow to Brown

By Golnar Motevalli

GLASGOW (Reuters) - Labour lost one of its safest parliamentary seats on Friday, deepening doubts in its own ranks about Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ability to win the next election.

Defeat left Brown facing a bleak weekend as the party's main policy-making forum met to try to work out how to win back voters disillusioned by a string of political gaffes, rising inflation and a slowing economy.

Adding to the gloom, data published on Friday showed second quarter growth slowed to its weakest rate in three years as housebuilding slumped, dragging the annual growth rate down to 1.6 percent from 2.3 percent in the first quarter.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) snatched a slim 365-vote majority in the Glasgow East constituency with a 22.5 percent swing that overturned the 13,500 majority enjoyed by Labour at the 2005 election.

If that swing against Labour was repeated in a general election even Brown could lose his seat.

In more bad news for Brown, a poll for The Independent on Saturday showed the Conservatives opening a 22-point lead over Labour.

That would give the Conservatives a landslide victory at the next general election, which Brown must call by May 2010.

The Glasgow result, the latest in a series of local and parliamentary election defeats for Labour, raised questions about whether Brown will face a challenge to his 13-month-old leadership of the party.