Riots by Asian youths in a second major English city and an opinion poll slashing his lead shocked Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday on the final day of campaigning for Britain's general election.
The ICM poll for The Guardian newspaper showed a four point drop in support for Blair, but it still gave him an 11-point lead over the main opposition Conservative Party -- enough to ensure his Labour Party a convincing victory today.
Opposition Conservative leader William Hague, kicking off his final day of campaigning with a 6am visit to London's Smithfield meat market, insisted he could still beat Blair.
"We fought a good campaign, we're doing well, getting a better reaction all the time.
"I won't be taking too much notice of opinion polls, good or bad," Hague said.
Blair, who will zig-zag the length and breadth of the country in his final day of campaigning, also said that it was the election, not opinion polls, that mattered to him. Eager to encourage core Labour supporters to go out to vote in the face of widespread voter apathy, Blair said his party needed the votes of every single one of his supporters.
"Every vote counts," the prime minister said. "The election is an open race. Political history is littered with examples of sure things that didn't turn out to be sure things."
The final day of campaigning was overshadowed by street violence in the northern city of Leeds, where riot police battled 300 Asian youths, mainly of Bangladeshi descent, in the run-down area of Harehills for seven hours overnight.
The rioting, with youths burning cars, barricades and shops, flared 12 days after three nights of racial violence hit the town of Oldham, 65km away.
The violence has raised more questions about the state of Britain's race relations.
A local Bangladeshi leader said the Leed riots followed an incident a week ago in which police used CS crowd control gas on an Asian man arrested for a minor traffic offense.
Hague's Conservatives have tried to make election issues out of crime and a growth in the number of refugees and immigrants coming to Britain.
The ICM poll cut Blair's Labour Party rating to 43 percent, with the Conservatives at 32 percent and the Liberal Democrats at 19 percent. Labour's 11-point lead was one of the the lowest recorded for the party during the month-long campaign.
Other polls have put the gap as wide as 20 points.
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