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Slashed majority hamstrings re-elected British PM
A slashed majority in Parliament could frustrate ambitions of freshly re-elected Tony Blair to push his Labour agenda through Parliament.
A slashed majority in parliament could frustrate the ambitions of freshly re-elected British Prime Minister Tony Blair to push his new Labour agenda through parliament and serve out a full third term in office.
Newspapers and the British airwaves were filled with speculation over the longer-term fate of the prime minister, whose majority in parliament was halved by a tough election in which Blair repeatedly dodged fire over how he had decided to take Britain to war alongside the United States in Iraq.
The day after Blair told Britons he had listened to their concerns and pledged to respond wisely and sensibly, the left-leaning Guardian reported that senior Labour figures had called on Blair to abandon his presidential style of government, rein in radical ambitions and name the date of his departure.
Right-leaning newspapers contrasted the shock among defeated Conservatives at the surprise resignation of leader Michael Howard with questions on how long Blair could continue to occupy the prime ministerial residence at Number 10 Downing Street.
"As hero Howard quits, why doesn't Blair take the hint," asked the Daily Express under the banner: "IT'S TIME TO GO"
With most election results in, Labour was heading for a majority of 66 seats in the 646-seat House of Commons, sharply down from 161 last time. Blair's biggest problems have come not from the Conservatives but rather from within his own party.
A hard core of between 30 to 40 Labour members of parliament have voted consistently against Blair in the past two years, with more defying him on individual issues. Final results seemed unlikely to cut the size of that "Awkward Squad" by much.
Those problems alongside a reduced majority could hinder Blair's legislative programme and hasten a handover to Gordon Brown, his popular Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) and assumed heir.
Blair swiftly moved to establish his new ministerial team, retaining key figures such as Brown and foreign minister Jack Straw but changing the faces at key posts such as defence, health and Northern Ireland. He brought back David Blunkett, the blind former home secretary who lost his job over a scandal.
The prime minister promised a "radical programme" of domestic reforms in health, education, immigration and law and order policies. On the international front, he said poverty in Africa, climate change and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were his priorities.
Despite his ambitions, the election will fuel a view among many Labour MPs that Blair is a liability rather than an asset. Some were openly saying they wanted Brown, who is far more popular with both party and public, to take over immediately.
Brown, 54, is widely credited with masterminding the stability of Britain's economy, which has outperformed its European neighbours during a global downturn.
A potentially tough fight to persuade Britons to approve the European Union constitution in a promised 2006 referendum could, if he lost, hasten Blair's exit.
Dissent could bubble over at a party conference this year.
Blair became the third of the key global allies in Iraq -- after U.S. and Australian leaders George W. Bush and John Howard -- to win postwar re-election.
One bright spot for Blair was Howard's resignation, which plunged the once-mighty Conservative party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher into fresh turmoil, making opposition feeble while contenders vie for the leadership.
Although shunned by some former supporters as untrustworthy, Blair has secured his place in British history, becoming the only leader other than Thatcher to win three elections in a row.
He is also the first leader to win three successive terms for the centre-left Labour party, which he and a coterie of supporters refashioned into a juggernaut that stormed out of the political wilderness and into office in 1997.
