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Britain's party leaders campaigned around the clock on Tuesday in a final push for votes, two days before a parliamentary election that opinion polls suggest could redraw the political map.Prime Minister Gordon Brown hinted that he could step aside if his Labour Party fails to win a fourth consecutive election on Thursday, as most polls suggest.The latest surveys showed David Cameron, hoping to end his centre-right Conservative Party's 13 years in opposition, will either win a slim majority in parliament or fall just short of taking overall control of the lower house, depending on how the votes are spread across Britain's 650 electoral districts.Cameron planned to campaign overnight, with events scheduled in northern England early on Wednesday as he seeks support from the third of voters said to still be wavering.The rise of the Liberal Democrats, the perennial third party in British politics, has added to the unpredictability and turned the contest into a three-way fight.For poll graphic, see http://r.reuters.com/haf32kFor multimedia coverage, see http://r.reuters.com/quq44jSome polls suggest the Lib Dems could overtake Labour as the second party in terms of vote share although the quirks of the electoral system mean Labour will win many more seats.However, the Lib Dems could hold the balance of power in any inconclusive election and will use that to push for a proportional voting system.Although Labour trails the opposition Conservatives by seven or eight points in the latest polls, Brown said Labour had not given up and many voters were still undecided.However, Brown, finance minister for a decade until 2007, indicated he could step aside if Labour flops at the polls."I will take full responsibility if anything happens," Brown told GMTV, a breakfast television show. "But I still think there are thousands of people who have still to make up their minds.""WORST PRIME MINISTER EVER"Brown's campaign was undermined by one of his candidates who described him in a local newspaper interview as "the worst prime minister ever".Manish Sood, standing for election in Norfolk, eastern England, told Reuters he stood by his comments."He is the worst because he has made it (Labour) a business party and he has made a mess of the economy," 38-year-old Sood said. "We need to go back to the basics of how life was in the 1970s .... a time of true moral socialism."The Financial Times newspaper gave Cameron a boost, switching its support from Labour, in power since 1997, to the Conservatives. It said Cameron's party will be better at tackling a record budget deficit and managing the recovery from the worst recession since World War Two.Data released on Tuesday showed factory activity grew at its fastest rate in over 15 years last month, but lending to consumers, home-buyers and businesses was weak, leaving question marks about the sustainability of recovery.Two of Brown's senior ministers appeared to appeal to centre-left Labour supporters in some close-fought electoral districts to consider voting for the Lib Dems to undermine the Conservatives.Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who has shot to prominence in the election campaign after strong performances in TV debates, urged voters to turn away from the two parties who have dominated post-war politics."48 hours to go - together we can deliver the better, fairer Britain we all dream of," Clegg told a 300-strong audience of local community groups in Northern Ireland.(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths, Estelle Shirbon, Matt Falloon and Tim Castle; editing by Diana Abdallah)
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