Brown's party unveils polls manifesto

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party set out its manifesto pledges yesterday ahead of May 6 elections, vowing no big spending commitments as it battles to rein in Britain's huge debt.
The governing centre-left party pledged to protect public services from cuts designed to tackle a record deficit as Britain emerges from recession, according to widely leaked excepts from the key policy document.
In office since 1997, Labour hope their manifesto will help them overturn opinion polls that have consistently put the main opposition Conservatives ahead.
The economy has dominated campaigning so far, with Labour presenting the election as a crossroads between continuing the road to recovery or veering off to financial disaster.
"There are no big new spending commitments, but there is a determination for every penny to be used wisely, and, as present plans make clear, to give the maximum protection to frontline public services," Brown says in the manifesto.
At the launch in Birmingham, central England, Labour was to argue that businesses are key to restoring jobs and growth, and promise not to raise the basic rate of income tax.
In addition, it pledges reforms to the voting system and parliament's unelected upper House of Lords following last year's row over lawmakers' expenses.