Blair Faces a Party Revolt

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s hold on office was dealt a strong blow Wednesday when eight former loyalists quit the government in a bid to speed his departure.

The political crisis engulfing one of the Bush administration’s most loyal allies follows months of unease within the Labor Party as support has slipped over such issues as immigration, healthcare and the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Less than 15 months after his party won a historic third consecutive general election, Blair is seen by many allies as a liability, with his party -- in the words of Conservative Party leader David Cameron -- “in meltdown.”

Polls show the Labor Party at its weakest point since 1994, trailing the Conservative Party by several points. Nearly half of the respondents in a Sunday Times poll last month said Blair should step down immediately.

Signals from Blair’s camp that he would depart by next summer have not appeased Labor Party critics, many of whom hope for a quick succession by treasury chancellor Gordon Brown.

Questions about Blair’s exit arose even before the Labor Party fared badly in local elections in May. Since then, the issue has come to be known as “the long goodbye.”

Last weekend, the prime minister tried to stop the drumbeat for a departure timetable by pledging to allow “ample time” for a successor to settle in. He called for a “stable and orderly” transition, and urged the political establishment to stop “obsessing” about his departure and “get on with the business of government.”

That was followed by a report in the Sun -- and not denied by Downing Street -- that Blair planned to announce his resignation on May 31, 2007, and would depart by the end of July. It seemed to be the timetable many had been seeking, but for others it was too little, too slow.

Brown’s supporters have said they want a firm departure date. Many Labor Party members want Blair to resign before May elections in Scotland and Wales, fearing the party’s prospects could be dismal without new leadership.

Open warfare broke out Wednesday after 15 Labor Party Parliament deputies faxed a letter to Downing Street outlining the “brutal truth,” that the party risked losing the next general election, expected in 2009, unless Blair agreed to “stand aside.”

It was a race to see whether the most prominent of the deputies, junior Defense Minister Tom Watson, would quit or be fired. He stepped down, declaring a “great sadness” in his resignation letter.

“I no longer believe that your remaining in office is in the interest of either the party or the country,” Watson wrote of Blair.

Blair said he had already planned to dismiss Watson.

“We are three years from the next election. We have a strong policy platform. There is no fundamental ideological divide in the Labor Party for the first time in 100 years,” Blair said in a letter to Watson. “To put all this at risk is simply not a sensible, mature or intelligent way of conducting ourselves if we want to remain a governing party.”

The departure set off a cascade of resignations from seven junior party secretaries -- all centrist Labor Party parliament members.

“Cumulatively, it’s quite serious. It’s suggestive of a continuing problem of getting a grip on things,” said Patrick Dunleavy, professor of politics at the London School of Economics.

“The reality is that Labor could lose, and there could be an outright Tory government of some kind,” he said. “That’s a very serious situation, and one that Labor hasn’t been in since about 1994.”

Barely able to contain their glee, Conservative Party leaders mainly stood back and watched the drama unfold.

“Increasingly, it appears this government is in meltdown and divided. It seems unable to show leadership on the challenges of the future,” Cameron said.

Brown has been conspicuously silent, leaving the fight to his supporters.

Although Brown is popular and can take some of the credit for Britain’s robust economy, several Labor Party members have shown interest in the leadership, raising the prospect of a bruising intramural contest.

Parliament member Glenda Jackson, the former actress and a Brown supporter, made a bid to calm the infighting by calling for Blair’s timetable to be given a chance to play out.

“People say to me in my constituency they’ll never vote again for Labor while Blair is in office,” Jackson said in a telephone interview. “I personally would like him to go today. But I think there’s been a step forward with this sign that he will be stepping down on May 31.”

*

kim.murphy@latimes.com

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Backstory

British prime ministers do not run for election. Instead, by tradition, the head of the party with the most members of Parliament becomes prime minister. He or she then chooses members of the Cabinet, who conduct most of the executive tasks of government.

Tony Blair, of the Labor Party, has been prime minister since 1997. His tenure is the second-longest since the 19th century. The prime minister decides on the timing of the general election, which must be held at least every five years. Blair’s party won the last general election in 2005.

A prime minister may resign at any time. The House of Commons can pass a motion of no confidence, which requires the prime minister to resign or request a general election. In other cases, prime ministers can lose their jobs if members of their party remove them from the leadership. That was the fate of Margaret Thatcher in 1990.

Source: BBC, Wikipedia