Tories prepare for snap poll

LONDON - Conservative leader David Cameron has put party workers on alert for a snap October election and made the breakdown of British society a key plank in the Tory platform.

British PM Gordon Brown has ordered his election planning team to prepare an options paper on an early poll to exploit the "Brown bounce" that has given Labour a 10-point lead over the Conservatives.

Labour MPs still expect Brown to delay until May but Tory party chairwoman Caroline Spelman believes the PM could use his keynote speech at next month's Labour Party conference to call a general election in October.

- Independent