LONDON, May 6: Britain’s Conservative party faces a period of turbulence after Michael Howard said he would quit as leader of the once-mighty party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher following modest gains in Thursday’s election. Mr Howard’s decision throws wide open the future of the right-of-centre party, already in the wilderness for nearly a decade, with no obvious successor lined up.

He is the fourth opposition leader seen off by Prime Minister Tony Blair since 1997 and the third since 2001. “Howard is leaving a big gap and this looks like the third leap into the unknown in four years,” said John Curtice, a political researcher at Strathclyde University.—Reuters