A new possibility of a Labour victory emerges

Kinnock says it's all over...though based on past experience, that means Brown will romp to victory.

Kinnock says Labour win unlikely
Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has said it "doesn't look like" his party can win the general election, but insists it remains "within reach".

Speaking before Gordon Brown's "bigoted woman" gaffe, he said the prime minister has been "poisonously misrepresented by the press".

Lord Kinnock told the New Statesman magazine Labour was not helped by the fact it had been in power for 13 years.

He added that he was "not as fearful" of a hung parliament as other people.

The latest poll - Thursday's daily YouGov tracker poll for The Sun - shows the Conservatives up one point on 34%, the Liberal Democrats up three on 31%, and Labour down two on 27%.

Interviewed earlier this week, Lord Kinnock, who was leading Labour when they lost the 1992 general election, said he would not speculate on the possibility of a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

"The likely outcome of this election is more difficult to predict than any other in our political life," he added.

Returning to the theme of why Labour was struggling in the polls, he said some in the party had been wrongly "articulating worries" about Mr Brown to the media.

He also said that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "certainly don't help".

Now assuming there is a Labour meltdown (now a strong possibility) they will have a major problem on their hands as many of their senior ministers are not in safe seats Reid, Hutton, Milburn, Purnell, Hewitt, Hoon and Byers would all be at risk, coupled with an outside chance of Straw and Darling going too would leave only Alan Johnson to face the Unite/Whelan patronage machine along with a lot of nonentity backbenchers (Labour have more of these than other parties)
I suspect though that the Tory campaign against Ed Balls would actually be doing Labour a favour if they win.
Still the events of yesterday coupled with the Leaders debate tonight have made the possible results of the election in 7 days time far more interesting.