LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered new political humiliation when his party was defeated in a Labour stronghold in Scotland. His leading opponent demanded Friday that Brown call an early national election.
The Scottish National Party overturned a big Labour majority in a special election Thursday to take Glasgow East, a working-class area that is longtime Labour territory. Voters were replacing Labour lawmaker David Marshall, who resigned for health reasons.
Labour won Glasgow East by more than 13,000 votes in the 2005 national election, but this time Scottish nationalist John Mason captured the seat by 365 votes.
Mason said his victory was "not just a political earthquake -- it is off the Richter scale."
The Glasgow defeat does not imperil Labour's hold on power, since Brown's party still has more than 60 House of Commons seats over the combined opposition. But it is the latest and most humbling in a string of electoral disasters for Labour since Brown took over from Tony Blair just over a year ago.
Labour is at a record low in popularity after more than a decade in power and with the economy slowing. Some in Brown's party have hinted that he should resign before the next national election, due by 2010.
Brown said the electoral defeat would not sway him from his main task -- trying to boost Britain's sagging economy.
"We had a great candidate. I'm sorry that she lost," Brown said Friday morning. "(But) my task is to get on with the task of getting us through these difficult economic times."
On Friday, Britain's main opposition leader called on Brown to call an early national election.
"I think the prime minister should have his (summer) holiday but then I think we need an election," said Conservative leader David Cameron. "I think we need change in this country, and that's how change should come about."
Discontent was simmering even in Brown's own party. Labour lawmaker Graham Stringer said there was now a question "whether the Labour Party has the will to win the next general election."
In May, Labour suffered a drubbing in local elections across England that also saw the party lose the London mayoralty after eight years.
Three weeks later, Labour lost Crewe, a longtime northern England stronghold, to the Conservatives in a special election. And last month, in a special election in the Conservative-held seat of Henley-on-Thames, Labour slumped to fifth place.
