Britain's political parties have started campaigning in earnest for elections due by June, with the troubled economy as the main battleground.
Conservative leader David Cameron has released part of his party's draft manifesto, while British finance minister Alistair Darling has sought to discredit Tory plans to cut public spending.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has not yet set a date for the election, although it must be held by June and experts say 6 May is the most likely date.
However both parties are jostling to gain an early advantage.
Battered by a record recession and a scandal over political expense claims, the UK now faces the prospect of five months of electioneering.
Mr Cameron, 43, is tipped by opinion polls to oust Mr Brown, who risks becoming one of Britain's shortest-serving premiers of recent times.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair, who resigned amid declining popularity after he strongly supported the 2003 Iraq war, is set to return to haunt Labour.
He is likely to give evidence to the public inquiry into the war in the second half of January or early February, a spokesman for the probe said today. Senior Labour figures are reportedly uneasy that his evidence could cause the party problems on the campaign trail.
With Britain still in recession and state borrowing at record levels, the early focus in campaigning is on the economy.
Mr Cameron's Conservatives have consistently been ahead of Mr Brown's Labour in opinion polls, although the gap has narrowed recently.
A new YouGov survey for Saturday's Daily Telegraph newspaper put the Conservatives on 40%, Labour on 30% and the third party Liberal Democrats on 17%.
