Poll predicts Brown by-election joy

Gordon Brown has received some rare good news as an opinion poll showed Labour on course to win the forthcoming Glasgow East by-election. The ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mirror - the first to be conducted within the constituency - put Labour on 47%, 14 points clear of the second place Scottish National Party on 33%. The Liberal Democrats were on 9%, with the Conservatives on 7%. The findings will come as a relief to the Prime Minister. The loss of the rock-solid Labour seat would be a disaster for Mr Brown after the loss of the previously safe Crewe and Nantwich and the party's humiliating fifth place in Henley-on-Thames. SNP leader Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, said that the poll showed that the party had made huge inroads into Labour's 45 point lead at the general election in 2005. "Twenty... [read full story]