UK's Brown hit by poll, media back rivals

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's faltering election campaign suffered fresh blows on Friday as support for his Labour Party slid in one new poll and leading newspapers came out in support of his rivals.

Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron's campaign was boosted by viewer polls finding him the winner of a televised debate among party leaders on Thursday night, the last before next Thursday's election.

But the increased support for the Liberal Democrats, traditionally Britain's third party, showed no sign of abating, appearing to leave Britain on course for its first parliament with no overall majority since 1974.

"This election is far from over. We are now entering the most energetic and the most important stage of this campaign ... I'm taking nothing for granted," Cameron said during an upbeat campaign stop at a school in Derby in central England.

A YouGov poll for the Sun newspaper showed the Conservatives leading on 34 percent with Labour and the Lib Dems tied on 28 percent.

But a Harris poll for Saturday's Daily Mail found support for Labour, which has ruled Britain since 1997, falling to just 24 percent. If repeated next Thursday, it would be Labour's worst election showing since 1918, it said.

The poll put the Conservatives on 33 percent and the Lib Dems on 32 percent. Under Britain's electoral system, which is based solely on the vote in individual constituencies, not proportional representation, the Conservatives would be the largest party but short of a majority in parliament.

Bookmakers William Hill said they had cut the odds of the Conservatives winning the most seats to 1/7, or 87 percent, the highest since the election was called.

Two major newspapers turned their backs on Labour.

The Guardian, traditionally a staunch Labour supporter, said it had switched its support to the Lib Dems because it was the best way to bring about electoral reform.

The Times, which backed Labour for the first time at the 2001 election and endorsed them again in 2005, said in its Saturday edition it had returned to backing the Conservatives.

BROWN EXPLAINS GAFFE

Nick Clegg, 43, the Lib Dem leader whose star has soared due to his confident performances against Brown and Cameron in three televised debates, told the Guardian that his party had replaced Labour as the natural home of progressive politics in Britain.

Britain has little experience of "hung parliaments" in which no party has overall control. Many investors fear it could weaken action to tackle Britain's gaping budget deficit, though markets have taken the growing prospect in their stride.

British government bond futures jumped on Friday after snap polls showed Cameron had won the last televised debate.

The most likely "hung parliament" scenario would see the Lib Dems back either the Conservatives or Labour.

In a BBC interview on Friday, Brown, 59, criticized Lib Dem policies and said he would not serve under Clegg.

"I do not want a hung parliament, I want a majority Labour government," Brown said.

Brown's campaign was derailed on Wednesday when he was unwittingly recorded describing voter Gillian Duffy as "a bigoted woman," and was forced to go back and apologize to her under the painful glare of television cameras.

"I have personally paid this heavy price for a mistake that I made," Brown told Saturday's Daily Telegraph.

Brown told the BBC on Friday he had misunderstood Duffy, 65, when she took him to task about immigration. "I thought she was talking about expelling all university students from this country who were foreigners," Brown said.

Surveys suggest that, while many voters are fed up with Brown, they are not sure they can trust Cameron, 43, a slick former public relations executive from a privileged background.

With the wind in his sails after the debate, Cameron tried to build on that trust by launching a "contract with voters" that lists key Conservative policies on cleaning up politics, fostering economic growth and tackling social problems.

Labour drafted in Brown's predecessor as prime minister, Tony Blair, who went out campaigning in London.

The charismatic Blair won a record three successive elections for Labour from 1997. Brown served as Blair's finance minister before taking over as Labour leader in 2007, and is leading the party in a national election for the first time.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)