Brown Now 1/20 In Leadership Race

Punters have voted Gordon Brown's budget a potential Election winner, and Brown himself a certainty to become the next Labour leader, say bookmakers William Hill, who have cut the odds about Labour wining the next General Election from 11/8 to 5/4 after taking their first significant bets for them this year following Wedensday's Budget.

They have also slashed the odds of Brown becoming Leader from 1/12 to 1/20 red hot favourite.

"Whether it is the income tax cut which has impressed punters is difficult to say, or Mr Brown's personal performance in delivering it, but after several months during which we have failed to take any significant money for a Labour Election victory, we have now taken enough to encourage us to trim their odds slightly from the longest price they have been since coming to power ten years - 11/8 - in to 5/4." said William Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

The bookmakers make the Conservatives 4/7 favourites to be the largest single Party after the General Election, with the Lib Dems 80/1 outsiders. William Hill offer 6/4 that there will be a Hung Parliament.

With some pundits believing that Gordon Brown may opt for a snap General Election when he takes over as PM, William Hill offer 25/1 that the next General Election will take place in 2007; 11/2 that it is in 2008; 5/6 2009 and 11/8 2010.