Can Gordon pull off a final, 11th hour turnaround?

By Luke Bozier / @luke_cb

The Sun had a particularly irritating headline on its front page today: “Srambled Clegg and Toast”. Whilst I’m not particularly worried about Nick Clegg’s political fortunes, as fascinating as his rise has been, the Sun is referring to Labour leader Gordon Brown as the “toast” in this metaphorical political breakfast. And although the vast majority of Labour activists are still going hell for leather to secure as many seats in Parliament for Labour, there are signs that sealing the deal next Thursday is going to be a real fight.

For the first half of the election, the polls were quite balanced, showing pretty much a three-way split between the main parties. There was still a real feeling that Gordon Brown could pull off a small Labour majority on May 6th and therefore remain as Prime Minister with his own mandate. But things started to change a little after the second leaders’ debate. A few campaign mistakes including the Elvis Presley impersonator, and perhaps most significantly the ‘bigot-gate’ gaffe on Wednesday, contributed to the feeling that we have a real fight on our hands to secure out position in Parliament as the party of government.

Looking at the polls following last night’s third and final leaders’ debate, David Cameron’s position has strengthened, and Labour is still in third place. Our poll ratings are historically low and we can’t avoid this reality. We can continue to fight however, and doorstep and other face-to-face personal campaigning is what helps to retain Labour seats. But let’s not forget, Labour is led by Gordon Brown, a man of real substance, and a man who I’ve always thought has very strong personal conviction, fibre and the ability to fight and continue fighting for what he believes.

Gordon Brown has made many a comeback, but can he pull off the biggest comeback of his career and turn Labour’s fortunes around before polling day next Thursday? I for one think it’s possible. Whatever happens, the discussions about the future of our party and our country, are just a week away. For now we are the underdog of the election, many people have already written us off. It’s time for one final push, time for Gordon to reignite the election and re-inspire the activists to campaign that little bit harder over the next seven days.

Good luck everyone, it’s going to be tough.