SEDGEFIELD (England), May 4: On the eve of an election likely to give him a historic third term, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to the nation on Wednesday to swallow misgivings over Iraq and return him to power as a reward for their healthy economy. “Of course there has been disagreement about Iraq,” the prime minister said as Iraq again dominated a news conference, his last of the campaign.
“(But) who do people trust with the economy, with the investment in our public services, with the interests of the country? I think we can make a pretty good case of it.”
Mr Blair, well ahead in polls, was like his rivals engaged in frenetic last-minute campaign stops round England and Scotland. He was then to spend the night in his constituency of Sedgefield, in northeastern England, where he will vote after polls open at 0600 GMT on Thursday.
Mr Blair hopes Britain’s robust economy, which has outperformed its European neighbours during the global downturn of recent years, will be his trump card. Interest rates and unemployment remain low, while growth has been constant.
But voters, including many in his own centre-left Labour Party, remain deeply uncomfortable with Mr Blair’s backing of US President George Bush in Iraq.
Michael Howard, leader of the main Conservative opposition, accuses Mr Blair of lying over the legality of the war and over intelligence on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.
DEFIANT FATHER: In Sedgefield, an area of old mining towns and picturesque villages where Mr Blair won a huge majority of almost 18,000 in 2001, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq is standing against him as an independent and seeking to garner a protest vote.
As he knocked on doors, an upbeat Reg Keys said voters were upset over Iraq and responsive to his anti-Blair message. “What we are seeing here are cracks in the foundation of the Labour empire,” he told Reuters. “People want something different.”
Despite a week of attacks on his integrity, polls put Mr Blair on course for victory, albeit with a likely reduction in his massive 161-seat parliamentary majority.
The latest survey on Wednesday gave Labour a commanding 14-point lead on 41 per cent versus the Conservatives on 27. Other recent polls have put Mr Blair between 3 and 10 points ahead.
Financial markets have factored in a Blair victory, although a big cut in his majority could shake a stock market already in retreat and punish the pound, analysts said. If Mr Blair is celebrating when the results come in on Friday — which is also his 52nd birthday — he would be the first Labour leader to win three successive elections.
Mr Blair, who has said he will step down at the end of a third term, insisted economic stability and investment in health and education would be his domestic priorities. Africa and the environment were his foreign policy priorities, he added. “I remain passionate about these things.”
Mr Blair’s first task on re-election would be to shape a new Cabinet. He has already made clear his powerful finance minister and likely successor, Gordon Brown, will remain in his post.—Reuters
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