LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his authority boosted by his handling of the financial crisis, embarked yesterday on a tour of the country to sell a multi-billion-pound bank rescue plan to voters.

Economists and media generally welcomed Brown's audacious plan to pledge hundreds of billions of pounds of taxpayers' money to the rescue plan, calling it a necessary if risky step.

But Brown knows he must overcome widespread scepticism among voters about using public money to bail out bankers, popularly seen as "fat cats" who did well out of the years of plenty.

"I am going round the country in the next two days to explain what we are doing," Brown told reporters. "We have got to put the banking system on a sound footing for the long term."

Yet despite the rescue plan, new ripples from the financial crisis rocked Britain yesterday when at least 45 local councils said they had millions of pounds invested with Icelandic banks that have been taken over by the state.

Brown, a former finance minister, has struggled to connect with voters since taking over from Tony Blair 16 months ago.

The severity of the financial crisis, which has forced Brown to nationalise two banks, has surprisingly boosted his political standing after a torrid few months when members of Brown's own Labour Party openly challenged his leadership.

Labour politicians have now closed ranks behind him, helping Labour cut the opposition Conservatives' previous 20-point opinion poll lead in half. But the Conservatives remain on track to win the next general election, due by 2010.

Wyn Grant, politics professor at Warwick University, said Brown had little alternative but to act to help the banks.