How will this move in the Brown era?

On the eve of the Tony Blair’s historic announcement the table shows how punters were assessing the chances of the main parties for the next general election in the Spreadfair commons seats market.

In this form of betting you buy or sell seat numbers and you can trade them day in and day out right until the final election is known maybe three years hence. You also do not need to tie up any cash now with an easy to open credit account.

The big question is which way is this going to go. Will the polls about Brown being leader be correct and could we see an increase in the Tory spread and a decrease in the Labour one?

Or will Gordon bring a stability and sense of direction to the party that will see the markets moving in the other direction

Who knows – the choice is yours. As a reference point a party will need 325 seats in the next parliament to be sure of forming a majority government.

Mike Smithson – author of “The Political Punter – how to make money betting on politics”