British premier Gordon Brown's Labour Party snatched victory from the jaws of defeat Friday in a key by-election seen as a test of whether his handling of the credit crunch can equal electoral revival.

Labour's Lindsay Roy won 19 946 votes in the Glenrothes seat, just north of Edinburgh, compared to 13 209 for the Scottish National Party's Peter Grant, his nearest rival. That represents a majority of 6737.

Before the economic chaos struck, Labour officials had all but written off their hopes of retaining the seat in the by-election, triggered by the death of sitting lawmaker John MacDougall.

But Brown has enjoyed an opinion poll bounce following the financial chaos and this appears to have propelled his struggling party to victory.

Glenrothes is the neighbouring constituency to Brown's own in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, and the premier broke with protocol by campaigning there alongside wife Sarah.

Behind in the polls

Labour has been behind in the polls since Brown pulled back from announcing a widely expected general election in October last year.

In recent weeks it has made up ground — last week, a ComRes/Independent poll gave the main opposition Conservatives 39 percent support and Labour 31. This compared to a 19 point deficit for Labour two months ago.

The result represents a blow to the SNP and its hopes of securing victory in a referendum on Scottish independence from London which it wants to hold in 2010.

The SNP, under First Minister Alex Salmond, has led the devolved government in Edinburgh since last year, enjoying a honeymoon period thanks to popular policies such as scrapping council tax.

But some opposition politicians have accused it of arrogance and assuming it would win Glenrothes.

A negative campaign

Its deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC she was "deeply disappointed" by the result and denied it was linked to a Brown bounce.

"It was a campaign fought on very local issues, it was relentlessly negative," she said.

Salmond — whose party adopted the slogan of US president-elect Barack Obama, "yes we can", on the campaign trail — had accused Labour of "negative scaremongering".

Scottish Labour lawmaker Anne McGuire told the BBC: "We did get the benefit of Gordon's confidence in handling the international situation without any shadow of doubt, linked to the local issues."

Roy, who is the headmaster at Brown's old school, expressed his support for Brown in his victory speech and cited the premier's record of economic success as well as the importance of local issues in the campaign.

"With Gordon Brown, Britain is strong. With Gordon Brown, Labour has won here in Glenrothes and central Fife," Roy said.

Labour had previously had a poor record in by-elections under Brown — in one of the worst results, it was trounced by the SNP at Glasgow East in July, surrendering its 25th safest seat in Britain and a majority of 13 500.

The prime minister won plaudits from many commentators for his handling of the world economic crisis which saw him announce a bail-out for high street banks ahead of other countries.

Labour had a majority of over 10 000 in Glenrothes at the last general election in 2005.

The BBC said that Labour's share of the vote was 55 percent compared to 36 percent for the SNP, which wants independence for Scotland from the United Kingdom.

AFP