Brown mauled in local elections

Britain's ruling Labour Party slumped to its worst local election defeat in 40 years on Thursday, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his first test at the polls since taking over from Tony Blair.

Buffeted by global economic turmoil and bedeviled by party infighting, Brown now faces an uphill climb against the resurgent Conservatives in the next parliamentary elections due in 2010 at the latest.

"If the economic crisis continues through 2010, Brown's dead in the water," MORI pollster Robert Worcester said.