LONDON, May 5: Britain’s Tony Blair overhauled his government on Friday after one of the worst local election defeats of his premiership in a bid to reassert his authority and signal he has no plans to step down as yet.
The shake-up follows accusations of government sleaze and incompetence on top of the dismal results, which piled pressure on Mr Blair to give his government new impetus or step aside.
Mr Blair axed Foreign Minister Jack Straw and Interior Minister Charles Clarke, stripped his deputy John Prescott of his ministry after a sex scandal and installed a fresh team to push forward reforms of services such as health and education.
“Tony Blair hopes to go on for another two years and with this reshuffle I think he’s signalled his intention to go on,” said Peter Kellner, a pollster at independent polling organisation YouGov.
Mr Blair also kept the peace with Finance Minister Gordon Brown, his expected successor, by promoting some of his allies.
Mr Brown is tipped to replace him before the next general election, due by mid-2010, but the prime minister has yet to give a handover date and relations between them have been tense.
Environment Minister Margaret Beckett, who earned an international profile in climate change talks, replaced Mr Straw to become Britain’s first female foreign minister.
John Reid, a loyal Blair backer, switched from defence to the home affairs ministry.
The prime minister replaced Mr Reid with Des Browne, who was No. 2 at the treasury under the finance minister. He takes on a high-profile role with British troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Blair’s official spokesman declined to say why Mr Straw had been demoted. Some analysts speculated that there may have been differences of emphasis on key policy issues, such as Iran.
New opposition Conservative leader David Cameron had little time to savour his local election success before Mr Blair’s cabinet makeover stole the headlines.
“I don’t think this reshuffle will be enough. What we need in this country is not a reshuffle of the government. We need a replacement for the government,” said Mr Cameron. —Reuters
