Opinion poll shows Brown bouncing back

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the financial crisis has helped his Labour Party slash the lead enjoyed by the Conservatives, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

The ComRes survey for The Independent newspaper put Labour on 31 percent, compared with 39 percent for David Cameron's Conservatives and 16 percent for Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservative lead -- which was 19 points in the same poll conducted two months ago -- has shrunk to 8 points, the ComRes survey showed, raising the possibility of a neck-and-neck result and a hung parliament if results were reflected at the next election, due by mid 2010.

The poll is the latest in a series of opinion polls which show Brown bouncing back after months of disastrous ratings which put his Labour Party around 20 percentage points behind the Conservatives.

Brown, who was finance minister for a decade before he took over as prime minister from Tony Blair last year, has been playing up his financial credentials and experience as qualities which make him the best man to steer Britain through tough economic times.

ComRes polled 1,001 adults between October 24 and October 26.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland. Editing by Paul Tait)