Election win boosts Britain's Brown

By Avril Ormsby

GLENROTHES, Scotland (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Labour Party won a surprise election victory in a Scottish town on Friday, a sign Prime Minister Gordon Brown's handling of the financial crisis has revived his political fortunes.

Just months ago, some Labour members openly questioned Brown's leadership after the party scored poorly in local 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 nine points, despite economists warning that Britain is on the brink of recession.

Thursday's vote 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".

Asked if Labour would now go on to win the next election, due by mid-2010, Brown told a news conference: "The undivided focus of governments and of ministers is on taking people through these difficult times.

"We have got to get the banks resuming their lending, we've got to help people with their gas and electricity bills and we've got to get the rest of the world working with us."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who was tipped earlier this year as a potential challenger to Brown, said the result was an endorsement of the prime minister's leadership.

The comfortable margin was a surprise as bookmakers had tipped the SNP, which overturned a huge Labour majority in another parliamentary election in Scotland in July, to win.