Britain's ruling Labour Party won a parliamentary election in Scotland on Friday in a sign that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the financial crisis has turned around his political fortunes.
Just months ago, some Labour members openly questioned Brown's leadership after the party lost a string of elections and fell 20 points behind the opposition Conservatives in the opinion polls.
But Brown's determined handling of the banking meltdown has cut the Conservative lead to 9 points, despite economists warning that Britain is on the brink of recession.
Thursday's election for a parliamentary seat in Scotland, where Labour's main rival is the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), provided the first firm evidence at the ballot box of a "Brown bounce".
The SNP reduced Labour's majority in Glenrothes, a former coal-mining area bordering Brown's own constituency, but it held on to the seat by a margin of more than 6,700 votes.
The comfortable margin came as a surprise as bookmakers had tipped the SNP, which overturned a huge Labour majority in another parliamentary election in Scotland in July, to win.
"With Gordon Brown interest rates are at a record low, helping hard-working families … With Gordon Brown, Labour has won here in Glenrothes," Labour candidate Lindsay Roy, the head teacher at Brown's old school, said in his victory speech.
INTEREST RATES SLASHED
The election was held on Thursday as the Bank of England slashed British interest rates by 1.5 points to 3 percent, the lowest in more than 50 years to try to avert a deep recession.
Some analysts suggest a Labour victory in Glenrothes could tempt Brown to call a snap parliamentary election before the economy worsens. He does not have to do so until mid-2010.
The British economy shrank for the first time in 16 years in the third quarter, house prices have fallen by around 15 percent in the last year and businesses are laying off workers.
The International Monetary Fund forecast on Thursday that Britain would suffer a deeper downturn than leading industrial rivals next year.
But polls show Britons see Brown, who spent a decade as finance minister before replacing Tony Blair as prime minister last year, as competent to govern in an economic crisis.
He won praise internationally and at home for a 400-billion-pound ($632.4 billion) package of loans and guarantees to prop up the financial sector.
Two Scottish-based banks, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, were forced to participate in the bailout.
Labour says the financial crisis has undermined the SNP case for independence, based on arguments that small countries such as Iceland can prosper.
Brown and his wife Sarah had both campaigned in Glenrothes and a defeat would have been a severe blow for him, possibly reopening questions about his leadership.
Voters in Glenrothes, where the death of the incumbent forced the election, were divided on who would handle the economy best.
"He's [Brown] doing okay. He'll get better as he goes along," said William Makie, 68, a retired forklift driver.
But Robert Todd, 77, a retired teacher who voted SNP, said it was time for change. "The economy has not been well managed, and the electricity and gas prices are out of control," he said.
