Kinnock Quits as Chief of British Labor Party : Politics: Deputy leader will also step down in wake of Tory election victory. Fight to replace them begins.

Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock announced his resignation Monday, declaring that the party needs new direction in the wake of its unexpected and devastating defeat by the Conservatives in Thursday’s national election.

Kinnock, 50, leader for nine years, said Labor’s deputy leader, Roy Hattersley, will join him in stepping aside when new leaders are chosen.

The announcement touched off a struggle within the party to elect a new leader and, more important, devise a way of keeping the former working-class, socialist party from becoming irrelevant in British national politics.

The party has now suffered four consecutive defeats at the hands of the Conservatives, first under Margaret Thatcher and now under Prime Minister John Major. Many observers--noting Labor’s failure to oust the Tories even during the current severe recession--wonder whether it can ever win a majority in Parliament.

Two leading contenders for the leadership are expected to announce their candidacies today: economics spokesman John Smith, 53, known as the “shadow” chancellor of the exchequer, and Bryan Gould, also 53, the party’s environment spokesman.

Candidates for the deputy leadership could include “shadow” Employment Secretary Tony Blair, 38, trade spokesman Gordon Brown, 41, and transport spokesman John Prescott, 53.

The party Executive Committee is expected to meet today to select a date--probably in June--to choose new leadership.

The special conference should favor Smith, a Scot who has strong ties to British labor unions as well as widespread respect within the party. He is one of the few senior Labor figures with Cabinet experience.

A Gallup survey suggested that had Smith been Labor’s leader, the party would have had greater success on Thursday when, to the surprise of pollsters and pundits, Labor failed to take the nation’s leadership away from the Conservatives.

Smith and Gould are both known as moderates, with Smith representing the center-right and Gould the center-left. The hard left of the party may offer a candidate, although such a choice would be unlikely to emerge as party leader.

The leadership campaign may trigger festering wounds within the party, political observers say.

Labor’s former chief press officer, Colin Byrne, complained in a letter to the Guardian newspaper Monday that a “conspiracy” was at work “maneuvering John Smith into position to walk into the leadership.” Byrne added:

“Labor seems to be sleepwalking toward a leadership fix in the grubby old style, with aging trade union barons, nods and winks about easing up on the accelerator pedal of reform and smoke-filled rooms being the main features.”

Kinnock, looking pale and drawn, quietly made his resignation announcement in a parliamentary committee chamber. His decision, he said, was an “essential act of leadership” arising from his desire to see the Labor Party gain further strength and better serve all Britons.

Kinnock, son of a Welsh miner and a district nurse, rose through party ranks as a young radical from the left wing, espousing such causes as unilateral nuclear disarmament.

But once he took over from Michael Foot after Labor’s disastrous 1983 election loss to then-Prime Minister Thatcher’s Tories, Kinnock moved the party toward the center, ruthlessly purging extreme leftists who were seen to have damaged the party’s image.

He took to wearing double-breasted blue suits with crisp white shirts and appointed a youthful but professional team of “shadow” cabinet officials to try to convince the electorate that Labor could govern responsibly.

But in the months leading up to the election, Kinnock’s personal rating in opinion polls constantly trailed that of Tory leader Major, who was more popular than his own party.

With the country in recession and the Conservatives running a lackluster campaign, it seemed that Kinnock--even though his party stood for higher taxes--might realize his life’s ambition to become prime minister.

But in the end, unconvinced voters turned from him to Major, and Kinnock had no choice but to resign.