Blair's allies say he won't quit early

Despite his party's win, speculation is rife that the UK PM may quit soon.

Close allies of British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, dismissed talks on Sunday that he would resign early into his third term, despite a post-election chorus of calls for him to do so.

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Three days after the Labour Party scored its first-ever electoral hat trick but with a much-reduced majority in parliament, speculation was rife that Blair might go sooner rather than later.

Several Labour MPs went on the record to say they would prefer to see him make way for his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, his virtually anointed successor, who enjoys a higher degree of popularity and respect.

"The idea that we're going to go for several years with a prime minister, who's said he's going to resign at some point is really not acceptable," said left-wing Labour backbencher, Jeremy Corbyn.

But close allies of Blair predicted that he will make good on the pledge he made last September that "if I am elected, I would serve a full third term" -- a maximum five years -- and then no more".

"I think he will stay until the appropriate moment for the election of a new leader and the run into the general election in four or five years time," said David Blunkett, the former home secretary who is back in Blair's Cabinet as work and pensions secretary.

Former Downing Street communications director, Alastair Campbell, a top Labour strategist during the campaign, said: "People have always underestimated Tony Blair as a politician."

"He's said he's going to stay for a full term, and I think that it's absolutely right that he does that," he said.

Blair marked his 52nd birthday on Friday with Labour returning to power with a 67-seat majority -- respectable by historical standards, but nowhere near its overwhelming 179- and 166-seat majorities in the 1997 and 2001 votes.

The setback was due in large part to Iraq -- "a divisive issue", Blair conceded on Friday -- and to the weakness of the main Opposition Conservatives, whose leader Michael Howard, is to resign.

The outcome strengthened Brown's hand, after the chancellor put aside his burning ambition to become prime minister for the duration of the election to campaign personally, and often, at Blair's side.

"Gordon Brown can be more confident than ever of securing the crown," wrote The Observer newspaper's well-connected political columnist, Andrew Rawnsley. "The only thing that can stop him is himself."

For Blair, much hangs on the outcome of France's referendum on the European Union constitution on May 29.

If the result is "non", then the pressure will be off Blair to hold a promised similar vote in Britain where, opinion polls indicate, the EU constitution will be easily rejected.

An "oui" result, on the other hand, will embolden French President Jacques Chirac, when he confronts Blair at the EU summit in Brussels on June 16-17 over Britain's sacrosanct EU budget rebate.

Labour MPs, who came out on Sunday for Blair to go sooner rather than later, included John Austin, who told The Sunday Times that Blair had been a "liability" in the election.

"I think it was somewhat arrogant to say he was going to continue with a full term," he said.

Ian Davidson agreed: "It needs to happen sooner rather than later. A natural break point might be the result of the referendum on the European constitution" which, if it comes, would likely be in the first half of 2006.

Labour MP David Taylor predicted: "I expect to see Blair go within a year to 18 months."

Within Blair's private circle, the thinking is that Blair will stay put in Downing Street until a Labour leadership contest in July 2008, with his successor taking over a few months later, The Observer reported.