British Prime Minister Tony Blair is planning to call general elections in February, ahead of schedule, to maximise his present opinion poll advantage over his opponents.
Blair has ordered top election strategist Alan Milburn to launch a television and poster advertising blitz in the New Year under the slogan "Britain is Working", the Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday.
The February poll is favoured by the prime minister to maximise his present opinion poll advantage over Michael Howard and his main opposition Conservative party, the newspaper said.
In addition, Blair hopes that Labour party will benefit from a "Baghdad bounce", following what he hopes will be the successful staging of elections in Iraq at the end of January, it said.
Blair's advisers have told him that he continues to be vulnerable on the key issue of trust and that if he delays polling day, which is scheduled to be held in May 2005, he will risk exposure to unforeseen problems both in Iraq and domestic issues, the paper said.
Liberal Democratic leader Charles Kennedy has predicted that the public would be unimpressed if Blair called a
February election. "It would be most unusual to call a snap general election less than four years after winning a majority of more than 160. The British people will see this as cynical manipulation by a government that mistrust," Kennedy was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
