The ruling Labour party on Friday suffered its worst drubbing in local polls since the 1960s, heightening troubles for a battered British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who took over 11 months ago. Admitting that it had been a “bad night” for the Labour party, Brown said he would “listen and lead” and see Britain through the current economic downturn, which he blamed for the poor show.

Commentators described Labour’s performance in local elections as a ‘mauling’, ‘bloody nose’, ‘horror show’ and ‘debacle’ with Brown’s critics already rooting for a change in leadership before the next general elections in less than two years.

As many 159 councils were up for grabs. With results out for 140, the Conservative had bagged 60, a gain of 12, while the Labour were trailing behind with just 15, a loss of nine. The Liberal Democrats had 11 while there was no party had overall control in 54 others.

Projections of voting percentages suggest that the Conservative party had gained 44 per cent of the votes and Liberal Democrats 25 per cent pushing Labour to a third place with 24 per cent.

“It’s clear to me that this has been a disappointing night, indeed a bad night for Labour,” Brown told reporters, adding that his government had “lessons to learn”, he added: “My job is to listen and to lead.”

He blamed “difficult economic circumstances” for much of the bad performance, and claimed that measures taken by the government to counter problems would become clear “over the next few months”.

“I think people want to be assured, and indeed people are questioning and want to be assured, that the government will steer them through these difficult times,” Brown said. He added: “The test of leadership is not what happens in a period of success but what happens in difficult circumstances.”

The poor performance by Labour is similar to the drubbing received by the Conservative Prime Minister John Major in local council elections in 1995, two years before he lost power to Tony Blair. Brown took over from Blair last year.

Elections expert John Curtice said: “It looks quite possible that by the time all the results are declared, Labour will have suffered at least 200 net losses.”