LONDON, May 5: British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour Party on Thursday recorded one of its worst defeats in a local election since coming to power in 1997.

After accusations of government incompetence and sleaze over the past few weeks, the poor results could spark fresh calls for Mr Blair to step down sooner rather than later.

Labour Party lost 298 council seats in Thursday’s elections of English local authorities while the Conservatives won 281 with almost all the results counted.

Labour was defending 1,768 seats out of 4,360 up for grabs. Analysts had said losing many more than 200 seats would be a bad result for Mr Blair.

“It’s not a good night for us, it’s a poor night,” outgoing defence minister John Reid told BBC television.

Critics have attacked Mr Blair in the past two weeks over a spate of scandals, including the failure to consider deporting foreign prisoners, hospital staff cuts and his married deputy’s admission that he had an affair.

“The Conservatives have had their best result since 1992 and it shows they are on the way back,” said Mori pollster Ben Page.

“But it doesn’t mean that Labour are going to lose the next election. It just shows it will be close. This is far from meltdown,” he said.

“The real question is what will Labour MPs (members of parliament) do now. Blair will be in trouble if a significant number of Labour MPs are sufficiently rattled by these results to say they might lose their own seats unless Blair goes,” said YouGov’s pollster Peter Kellner.

“These results are not quite bad enough for it to be automatic for Labour MPs to step in. But on the other hand, it’s all on the cusp,” he said.

Voters in Britain traditionally use local elections to punish the government of the day.

Tony Blair, who won his third straight election last year, has said he will quit before the next general election, due in 2010, but has not set a date. Very poor results could increase calls from within Labour for the prime minister to name a departure date, or hand power to his presumed successor, Finance Minister Gordon Brown.

TEST FOR CONSERVATIVES: The poll was also a crucial test for the Conservatives under new leader Cameron who is trying to transform his party into a modern, caring political force and drag it out of the wilderness after three straight election defeats.