Labour faces test in British votes

Campaigning was today drawing to a close in the British government's biggest electoral test since Labour won its third term in…

Campaigning was today drawing to a close in the British government's biggest electoral test since Labour won its third term in power in 2005.

Millions of voters are set to go to the polls tomorrow across England, Scotland and Wales, and all the signs are that they are determined to give Tony Blair a bloody nose in his final elections before he quits as Prime Minister.

But the ballots for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and local councils in England and Scotland will also be a tough test for Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who must show that his party's much-vaunted revival stretches outside the south east into areas that have been virtual Tory-free zones since 1997.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell needs some sign of progress to reassure internal party critics that he is the man to take them into the general election of 2009/10.

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The fiercest fight is in Scotland, where the latest polls suggest the battle between Labour and the Scottish National Party to form the largest grouping in the Holyrood Parliament is on a knife edge.

Two separate surveys this morning suggested that Labour was clawing back the SNP's early advantage and there may be only a seat or two between the parties when the results are announced.

In Wales, Labour is fighting to regain control of the national Assembly in Cardiff, which it lost in 2005 when AM Peter Law became an independent. There is little doubt Labour will remain the largest single party at Cardiff, but with Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones claiming its vote is in "meltdown" it may lose enough seats to allow a combination of nationalists, Liberal Democrats, Tories and independents to form a coalition and remove it from power.

In England, Mr Blair's party is simply hoping to keep down the number of seats it loses on councils up and down the country. Predictions are that Labour could haemorrhage as many as 750 of the 2,385 seats it is defending, and the party's control of authorities such as Sheffield, Blackpool, Lincoln, Plymouth and Blackburn with Darwen is under threat.

PA