Keep your eye on the upcoming election...

...in Britain. It could be a harbinger for the midterms in November:

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the opposition Conservatives would “wreck the recovery” with their planned budget cuts, stepping up his attacks after a poll showed his ruling Labour Party may emerge with the largest number of seats in parliament after the election.

A YouGov Plc poll published in yesterday’s Sunday Times newspaper showed Labour at 33 percent, the Conservatives at 37 percent and the Liberal Democrats with 17 percent. Because of the uneven distribution of votes across districts, Labour would get 302 seats in the 650-member parliament and the Conservatives 277, with no party having a majority, the Times said. No margin of error was provided.

Conservative poll ratings have slumped this year as the economy exited recession. (My emphasis.) Opposition spokesmen yesterday reiterated the urgency of cutting a record budget deficit and criticized Labour’s ties to unions.