Blair asked to set date for stepping down: Reshuffle fails to silence opponents
LONDON, May 6: British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s swift overhaul of his government after dismal local election results failed to reassure critics within his Labour Party who called for him to make clear when he will step down.
A day after Mr Blair’s wholesale shake-up, would-be successor finance minister Gordon Brown repeated his call for urgent change in the party following the election rout.
“We’ve had a wake-up call,” Mr Brown told GMTV television. “We’ve had a signal that cannot be ignored and that makes it more urgent we do what we’ve go to do — and that it is to renew ourselves to deal with these challenges ahead.”
Mr Blair, who was elected for a third successive term last year, has said he will not fight the next national election due by mid-2010 but wants to see through his reform agenda.
Mr Brown, who has been finance minister since 1997 and long coveted the top job, said he would talk to the prime minister this weekend about how to revitalise the party and win back voters after the poor local election results.
Labour lost 319 council seats in Thursday’s local authority elections while the Conservatives won 316, their best result since 1992. Analysts had said more than 200 losses would be bad.
Some Labour lawmakers said on Saturday that uncertainty about the leadership, on top of accusations of sleaze and political bungling, was sapping voter confidence and had dealt the party a serious blow at the ballot box this week.
“There really is a need for change right at the top now,” lawmaker Geraldine Smith told the BBC.
“The change that many people would like to see is actually Tony Blair announcing when he is going to stand down and have a proper timetable and an orderly transition of power.”
However other Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) said the Blair critics were a minority.
REBEL LETTER: The Observer newspaper said rebel Labour MPs had finalised a letter to be circulated among party lawmakers for signing next week calling for Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, to step in if Mr Blair does not announce a handover date.
Quoting from the letter, the paper said the rebels wanted the NEC, ‘in consultation with the prime minister, to lay out no later than the end of this parliamentary session (this summer) a clear timetable and procedure.
Unconfirmed media reports said about 50 of the party’s 353 MPs were ready to sign such a letter so far.
Mr Blair responded fast on Friday to the poor poll results by axing his foreign and interior ministers, putting long-standing backers in top jobs and junior supporters in key party posts, in what was seen as a bid to reassert his authority as leader.
Mr Blair’s official spokesman said the reshuffle was intended to put experienced people in top positions while bringing on talent to push through his reforms of public services.
A poll of 25 losing Labour councillors by a television channel showed a third wanted Mr Blair to go now while nearly half believed the reshuffle would not repair the party’s reputation.—Reuters
