A humbled Tony Blair returned to Britain yesterday to answer critics in his own party after voter backlash against his support for war in Iraq brought an unprecedented trouncing in local elections.
Blair's aides tried to put the best possible spin on the election defeat while the prime minister attended the funeral of former US president Ronald Reagan in Washington.
But more than 460 Labour officials were voted out of local government, and Blair will have to convince party members with seats in national parliament that they will not suffer the same fate in a general election likely next year.
"I'd like to say I'm sorry to the [local] councilors who've lost their seats," Blair told reporters in Washington before heading home.
"I think Iraq has been a shadow over our support," he said.
He said he was still determined to stay on in Iraq, and expected Iraq would become less of a liability as news improved with a UN-endorsed plan to restore sovereignty.
Blair supported the US drive to invade Iraq despite strong opposition within his own party.
Ruling parties in Britain often do poorly in local elections only to bounce back and win in national polls.
But for the first time Blair's Labour Party did not even manage to come second. Its 26 percent left it behind both the main opposition Conservatives and the strongly anti-war Liberal Democrats, traditionally the smaller third party.
Labour's majority in parliament under Blair has been so big he would still control the chamber even if scores of his party colleagues were to lose their seats in next year's election.
Party rules make it difficult to remove him as leader, but as more Labour lawmakers fear for their own jobs, there have been growing calls for a new party leader -- and hence prime minister -- to fight the election.
Blair's ambitious Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has been waiting in the wings.
Most Labour figures, while acknowledging a need to learn from what Blair's deputy John Prescott called a "kicking," fell well shy of calling for Blair's scalp.
But former foreign secretary Robin Cook, who quit the cabinet in protest of plans for war, said voters who deserted Labour over Iraq would stay away as long as Blair led it.
Clare Short, another outspoken Labour rebel, said voters were punishing Blair because his party couldn't.
"What we did in Iraq has brought disgrace and dishonor on Britain around the world. As Tony Blair won't change the policy, the only way to make a correction is for him to step aside from the leadership," she said.
The one bright spot for Labour in this week's election was the reelection of its popular candidate Ken Livingstone as London's mayor, announced late on Friday.
But even that was a dubious endorsement for Blair, since the maverick Livingstone led massive street protests against the Iraq war.
Blair faces more expected bad news today when delayed results for Thursday's vote for the European Parliament are released.
Opinion polls suggest fringe parties opposed to deeper integration with the EU will do well. That may hurt the opposition Conservatives more than Blair in the short term, but it bodes ill for him in the year ahead.
The prime minister has pledged to sign a new constitution for the EU, and then lobby voters to support it in a referendum, even though most Britons disapprove of the idea.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS