British Prime Minister Tony Blair's political future is being openly questioned by some of his most senior members of parliament (MPs), as his office on Downing Street, London, fails to stamp on persistent rumors that he may quit.
The latest bout of soul-searching in the Labour Party comes as Blair makes yet another attempt to relaunch the government's domestic agenda with a speech on education.
Blair was to tell the National Association of Head Teachers' conference yesterday that the government is to focus its attention on children under five years old.
But even Saturday night Blair was still searching for a policy "nugget" to offer the public or face having the speech dismissed as another reheating of old initiatives.
Number 10 is desperate for a "breakthrough" on the domestic agenda. An attempt to seize the initiative on immigration failed last week when a speech by the prime minister was seized on as a U-turn.
Blair said council house provision for immigrants would be blocked, a matter of weeks after saying that housing shortages were nothing to do with the issue.
In interviews with the 12 Labour chairmen and chairwomen across the party -- people who reflect a wide spectrum of political thinking within it -- only three said that Blair should continue for a full third term, which is what the prime minister wants to do.
Seven said he should "consider his position" shortly after the next election or after a referendum on the European constitution, and two said he should resign before the general election.
"We just have such a bad feeling in the party now about how we have been treated and about how the country feels about the prime minister," said one chairman, who wanted Blair to go before the next election.
"Iraq, tuition fees, foundation hospitals, the European referendum change, all have left us looking out of control. It's time for a handover," he said.
But other, pro-Blairite MPs said that it would be ridiculous for the prime minister to quit.
"The idea that Blair is ripe for deposing, or is under such pressure that he should throw in the towel, I find bizarre," said Bruce George, chairman of the defense select committee.
"I think the acid test will be whether or not we have a clearly Blairite manifesto for Labour in the run-up to the next general election," Stephen Byers, the former Cabinet member, was to tell yesterday's GMTV program.
"Now if we don't have a bold, ambitious manifesto of real change, then I think people will raise the question, well, perhaps Blair isn't going to be around to see it through.
"I've got no doubt from the sort of conversations I've had with him that he's got a huge appetite to continue as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party: he's going to do a full third term," Byers said.
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