Poll: Labor headed for historic defeat

LONDON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Britain's Labor Party is heading for an electoral defeat of such magnitude it could take more than a decade for it to recover, a poll indicated Sunday.

The poll, conducted for the Web site PoliticsHome.com and reported by The Sunday Observer, was described as the largest ever taken looking at marginal parliamentary seats, with nearly 35,000 voters polled across 238 seats, the newspaper said.

Its results suggested a defeat of historic proportions for Labor, almost as bad as the shellacking endured by the Conservative Party in 1997. Eight Cabinet ministers, including Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Justice Secretary Jack Straw, would lose their seats and the Conservative Party would gain a majority of 146 seats in Parliament, The Observer said.

The poll indicated Labor seats would become virtually non-existent in southern England, leaving the party with only a few hardcore districts in northern England, the Welsh valleys and poor inner-city areas.

The poll, conducted by YouGov PLC, was taken between July 22 and Aug. 4. It did not indicate its margin of error.