British PM Gordon Brown Announces May 6 for Election

British premier Gordon Brown has announced May 6 as date for country’s election, reported BBC.

Earlier, he went to Buckingham Palace and asked the Queen to dissolve parliament in preparation for the election, said report.

Report said that electorates in Scotland, where Labour party emerged as the single largest party in the last elections in 2005, would be asked to return 59 parliamentarians to Westminster.

The four-week election campaign for country’s hardest fought election in years is expected to be dominated by the economy, said report.

Brown said that he has the experience and skills to reverse the recession, while David Cameron of the Conservative party contended that what the crisis demands is change and that Labour had failed, report said.

Nick Clegg, a Liberal Democrat, however, emphasized on the need to maintain social fairness, said report.

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond called on voters to support ‘SNP champions’ to provide a strong Scottish voice amid the ‘discredited’ Westminster system, report said.

“The London parties offer the same agenda – they are part of the same metropolitan, political machine,” he was quoted as saying.

“The London parties have blown the gaff on their plans for Scotland – by their own admission, Labour would cut ‘tougher and deeper’ than Thatcher, and the Tories are planning a special cut for Scotland despite being funded by Scottish resources, blowing their respect agenda away.

“The SNP are going into this campaign with a clear message for Scottish voters – more votes means more Nats, and more Nats means less cuts.”

In 2005 elections, Labour won 41 seats in Scotland, including the seat held by the then Commons speaker, Michael Martin, while the Liberal Democrats won 11 seats, the SNP six and Conservative one.