GORDON Brown turned the screw on David Cameron yesterday by poaching two senior Tories to advise him - while declining to rule out a General Election next month.

Returning from his summer holiday, the Prime Minister stunned the Conservatives by pinching Tory MPs to his vision of "a politics that draws on the widest range of talents".

Patrick Mercer - condemned by Labour just six months ago for allegedly racist comments which forced him to quit as shadow homeland security spokesman - will advise on security matters.

And John Bercow, often tipped as a possible defector to Labour, will advise on support for children with learning difficulties, a subject close to MrCameron's heart as the father of a severely disabled child.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Conservative donor Johan Elisach, who suddenly quit as deputy treasurer, was considering a post advising Mr Brown on saving Congo's rainforests.

The appointments, announced in a speech on The New Politics, were clearly designed to reaffirm Labour as the centre-ground party, after Mr Cameron's alleged "lurch to the right" in recent weeks.

Furthermore, in interviews to mark his return to his No 10 desk, Mr Brown, ducked repeated challenges to rule out a General Election next month.

Insisting he was concentrating on running the country, the Prime Mminister told BBC Radio Four there would be no election announcement "today".

He went on: "If there were to be an election, the first person I would tell is not you, it would be Her Majesty the Queen and I have not done that.

"There will be a time and a place for these things, but it is not now. I am getting on with the business of government."

Significantly, in a separate newspaper interview, Mr Brown declined to repeat his previous insistence that there was no precedent for a Prime Minister taking over mid-term to call an early election.

At the same time, he moved closer to killing off Iraq as an election issue by withdrawing all British troops from Iraq, after the last 500 soldiers pulled out of the centre of Basra.

The appointment of Tory MPs to advise him follows Mr Brown's surprise decision to put non-Labour figures - including former CBI director Sir Digby Jones - in his Government.

The Conservatives insisted Mr Mercer and Mr Bercow had informed Mr Cameron of Mr Brown's request, but did little to disguise their irritation.

Caroline Spelman, the party's chairwoman, said: "It would have been nice if Gordon Brown had actually lifted the telephone to talk to David Cameron.

"That would have given a little more credence to the view that this is a genuinely cross-party approach. It would have been a basic courtesy."

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor will advise Environment Secretary Hilary Benn on land use and planning changes to help rural communities.

The temptation for Mr Brown to call an autumn election has grown after Labour regained its poll lead and Mr Cameron endured a difficult summer, amid talk of party splits over policy.

But there are major obstacles - not least a looming "autumn of discontent", with threatened strikes by public sector workers over a pay squeeze.

Mr Brown also announced plans for Citizens Juries, of between 12 and 20 people, with the first to meet, in Bristol, on Thursday to discuss youth and children's issues.