The White House: All roads lead here for Bush and Kerry

As the American presidential election campaign enters the home straight, British politicians are among those awaiting the final result.

Ahead of the November 2 poll, President George W Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry are continuing the quest for votes.

With both men setting out markedly different visions for America and its place in the world, the outcome is likely to have a significant impact on politics this side of the Atlantic too.

But writing in the latest edition of The House Magazine, Labour backbencher Gisela Stuart warns her colleagues not to count on a Kerry victory.

"I think George Bush is going to win the presidential election next week," she says.

"To say this is regarded as somewhat eccentric, particularly for a member of the Labour Party, but you’ve only to look at the rag-bag of people gunning for George - across all shades of the political spectrum in Britain and Europe - to know the boy must be doing something right.

"For the liberal media and their allies, Bush is still the man who stole the election from their champion, Al Gore.

"Vote counting in Florida last time was not a pretty sight, but it was probably less odious than ballot stuffing for John Kennedy in Chicago in the close 1960 race: not too much was heard from the cognoscenti about that at the time or since."

She warns that it is "difficult" to work out what Kerry stands for, and says it is the "politics of Lalaland" to think he could build a broader alliance over Iraq taking in countries like France.

"Still, it remains unfashionable to support Bush, and the trendy left in Britain shares a cause with the Hollywood glitterati," Stuart writes.

"OK, the president mangles his words now and then, but John Prescott does too and the fashionable sneer at him."

She argues that "Bush should be judged on what he does and not how he sounds".

"In practice he has been cautious in his actions, is collegiate, surrounds himself with advisers with strong and sometimes contrary views and he is comfortable in his own skin.

"If Bush were to be ousted, there would be victory celebrations amongst those who want to destroy liberal democracies. More terrorists and suicide bombers would step forward, to become martyrs in their quest to destroy the West."

Conservatives for Kerry?

But while one Labour backbencher is looking towards a Bush victory on November 2, Conservative MP Simon Burns suggest a Kerry win could be the better outcome.

"For the first time in living memory many people around the world hate America. This is not the fault of Americans - this is the fault of their president," he writes in The House Magazine.

"John Kerry is an excellent, serious and strong candidate and will make a respected and courageous president.

"Kerry will lead the world, not alienate it. He will lower the deficit, not raise it. He will create good jobs, not lose them. He will solve a healthcare crisis, not ignore it.

"He has the experience, the character, the ideas and the values to be a great president."

Burns adds that Kerry is more likely to unite both America and the international community.

"He will rally the world to win the war on terror, to make more friends and create fewer terrorists," he said.

"America might be a divided nation at present, but it needn’t be. It might be a loathed nation, but it needn't be.

"This election is not about good and bad. It is about right and wrong."