Britain's rattled main parties turned their fire on the smaller Liberal Democrats on Sunday after an opinion poll showed it surging into a shock lead weeks before a national election, Reuters reported. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's confident performance in Britain's first televised leaders' debate on Thursday has turned the race for the May 6 election upside down. "It's thrown the campaign wide open," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC, admitting that he lost the debate on presentation and style. But he said the campaign was not "The X Factor", a popular television talent show, and substance would triumph in the end. "This is not a sprint, it's a long campaign," Brown said. Brown's Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives have dominated British politics for decades. But the normally third-placed Liberal Democrats have forced themselves into the reckoning as voters, disillusioned with the big parties after a deep recession and a political expenses scandal, welcomed Clegg as a breath of fresh air. The Sunday Times said its poll found the formerly little-known Clegg was now the most popular British party leader since World War Two prime minister Winston Churchill. The Liberal Democrat surge makes an indecisive election result -- feared by financial markets as it could weaken efforts to rein in Britain's gaping budget deficit -- more likely. It could enable Labour to cling on as the largest party, though without a parliamentary majority, and to rule in alliance with the Liberal Democrats. Brown, who previously focused attacks on the Conservatives, turned on the Liberal Democrats, slamming their plans to reduce the number of families who qualify for child tax credit. "I think they've made a mistake on their economic policy and I think during the next two weeks we will be able to expose that we've got the best economic policy for the country," he said. The Conservatives' finance spokesman, George Osborne, said voting Liberal Democrat could allow Brown to cling on as head of a coalition government. A BPIX survey for the Mail on Sunday showed the Liberal Democrats taking the lead for the first time. Support for the Liberal Democrats had soared 12 points to 32 percent, with the Conservatives down 7 points on 31 percent and Labour down 3 points on 28 percent, it said. Under the quirks of Britain's first-past-the-post election system, that would make Labour the biggest party in parliament and give the Liberal Democrats about 120 seats -- almost double the number they have now. That could allow the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition with either of the other parties. Two other polls published on Sunday showed big surges in support for the Liberal Democrats but put them slightly behind the other two parties. The Sunday Times poll showed the Conservatives leading Labour by three points and a poll in The Sunday Telegraph showed them ahead by five points. While the Liberal Democrat bounce cold be short-lived, analysts said Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron would have to rethink strategies for dealing with Clegg before the next televised debate on Thursday focusing on foreign policy. "Clearly the other two parties are going to launch a broadside attack on him," said Simon Lee, senior politics lecturer at Hull University. Clegg told Sky News he welcomed the increased scrutiny. -- SPA
