Brown Plays Down Talk of Early Election

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday that now was not the time for an election in Britain, but refused to rule out calling one before the end of the year.

Faced with new opinion polls showing that the "Brown bounce" in ratings he has enjoyed since taking over from Tony Blair in June may be starting to fade, Brown said he was not concerned with election timing, but busy getting on with the job.

"There will be a time and a place for a general election, but it is not now," he told BBC radio.

A ComRes poll in Monday's The Independent newspaper showed Brown's Labour Party tied with the opposition Conservative Party with 36 percent support, with the third party the Liberal Democrats on 15 percent. The same poll a month ago had given Labour a 3.0 percent lead over Conservatives.

A YouGov poll for Good Morning Television put Labour at 38 percent and the Conservatives on 35 percent.

In an interview with Monday's right-leaning Daily Telegraph, Brown said he wanted to move away from old-style factional politics and seek broad support from all sections of Britain.

"I want us to be not in any way sectional but be a government that genuinely unifies the country," he said. The Telegraph said Brown's comments were a clear sign that he was "preparing the ground for a poll next month".

Asked on BBC radio whether he would rule out an election in the autumn -- a date many political commentators have been speculating on in recent weeks -- Brown said: "There is a time and a place for these things, but I am getting on with the business of governing."

Political analysts doubt Brown will call an October election, and many say his apparent hints at an early election are simply a political ploy to try to destabilise the Conservatives, whose leader David Cameron has struggled to make headway in the polls in recent months.