Brown starts fightback with policy promises

By Katherine Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown will unveil plans to help families and lowpaid workers on Wednesday, hoping to restore faith in his government after a local election drubbing and a run of attacks on his character.

But the former chancellor will struggle to keep the focus on policy as the Labour Party openly questions whether he is the man to lead them into the next general election, due by May 2010.

Ministers on Monday defended Brown against personal attacks from senior Labour figures and accepted the government was going through an unexpectedly bad patch.

Ed Balls, schools secretary and a staunch Brown ally, urged an end to in-fighting, warning division could tear Labour apart as it did to the Conservative Party government in the 1990s.

"Now is the time for the Labour Party to unify and take the fight to the Conservatives on policy," he told reporters.

"I don't think any of us expected the last few months to be as tough as they've been but that's the way it is," he added.

Labour suffered its worst local election defeat on record on May 1 as voters vented anger over rising food and energy prices, income tax changes that hit the poor, and a broader frustration with a government in power since 1997.

The May local council poll was Brown's first electoral test since he succeeded Tony Blair, without an election, in June.