UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown will use his New Year message to rally his supporters and to attack the “privileged few” who stand poised to “wreck the economy,” the BBC reported today. The speech, which was made available to the media, will soon be available in a webcast on the Downing Street website.

Read the full transcript of the speech here.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown ready for election, he says. Photo credit: World Economic Forum

While Brown does not mention the Conservative party or its leader, David Cameron, by name, it’s very clear that he means the Tories, the BBC reported. The speech follows weeks of jabs from Brown at the Conservative Party, claiming that the party is elitist, as well as the news that the double digit lead Tories enjoyed over Labour has slimmed to single digits. Brown used his New Year message, the BBC said, to “draw his election battle lines.”

Listen to the speech here.

The Times, after highlighting that even in his attack on the “privileged few”, Brown is “insisting” that he will protect those on middle incomes, reported that Brown’s speech “sounds only a partial retreat from the rhetoric that has caused dismay among senior members of Cabinet.”  Brown’s allies claim that he is not looking to start a class war with Conservatives, The Times continued, but the speech and its unnamed and selfish “privileged few” hardly puts accusations that that’s precisely what he’s doing to bed.

The Telegraph, which gave far fewer inches to Brown’s actual speech than to responses from Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, agreed. The paper goes on to quote Chris Grayling, Conservatives shadow home secretary, who further honed in on the class point, saying, “Despite warnings from his own Cabinet, Gordon Brown remains intent on waging a negative and pointless class war.” Nick Clegg, Liberal Dems leader, accused Brown of “parroting the language of change” and asked voters to look to his party for real change.

Brown primarily focused on the economy and was optimistic about the UK’s chances of economic recovery in the next year, SkyNews reported, and says that he will publish the first part of his “prosperity plan” next week.  The recession is over, Brown says, and with unemployment to fall next year, 2010 will usher in a new “decade of shared prosperity.”

The Times also pointed out that Brown “took care” to mention Lord Mandelson’s industrial policy “as part of wider efforts to dampen speculation of a rift between the Government’s two most senior figures over election strategy.”

Rumors that Brown would call a snap election have persisted in recent weeks; the absolute latest date for an election is 3 June.

Brown actually begins his speech with a very timely discussion of Afghanistan and the continued war on terror, especially in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day airline bomb: “Last year was particularly tough for our forces in Afghanistan, and we face some more difficult months ahead,” he says. “And while progress is difficult, I am working every day and will continue to step up our efforts with no let-up to disrupt the ability of terrorists to mount attacks on Britain, and to work with other countries to prevent terrorism on our streets. This will have my relentless focus in 2010, just as Afghanistan will have. We will steadily be giving more control of Afghanistan to Afghan troops and police.”