British Prime Minister Tony Blair came under carefully choreographed public and private pressure from the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's closest supporters on Friday to set out the timetable for his departure in the wake of dire local election results.
In an escalation of the power struggle between New Labour's two creators, Andrew Smith, a former Cabinet minister and an ally of Brown, identified the prime minister as the problem on the doorstep in the elections.
"We have uncertainty over the transition and it has to end very soon," Smith said. "It gets worse with every month that passes and reinforces the lack of trust in this government."
Ominously for Blair, backing for him to agree to an "orderly transition" soon is also coming from former Blairites such as Nick Raynsford and John Denham.
"I now think it's going to be necessary to set out a timetable for the change of leadership, though I do not think we should be specific or seek to impose one. But the objective of stability for ministers to deliver on key policies will not be possible if there is uncertainty over the leadership. Ministers will be continually looking over their shoulders," Raynsford said.
If Blair does not bow to the pressure, backbench members of parliament (MPs) intend to publish a letter, possibly by the end of next week, with as many as 75 signatures calling on him to agree to the transition or face a formal challenge. Brown himself called the election result -- Labour lost 306 seats and 18 councils -- a "warning shot" that showed the party needed to renew itself in the same way as it had in the 1980s. His aides said he would be speaking to Blair over the weekend about the need for renewal and an orderly transition.
The prime minister will hold a press conference tomorrow and address querulous Labour MPs tomorrow night. Despite the pincer movement against him, there is a defiant mood in Downing Street based on the fact that Blair was democratically elected only a year ago, the local election results were not calamitous and opinion polls do not show an overwhelming demand for him to go immediately. But Brown believes the defeats reflect an irretrievable loss of trust in the prime minister.
Brown's allies said that the chancellor had not been consulted over Blair's Cabinet reshuffle, and expressed displeasure at the appointment of Hazel Blears as chair of the party, replacing Ian McCartney. They were also disappointed that Hilary Armstrong lost her job as chief whip, to be sidelined as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and minister for social exclusion. She is replaced by Jacqui Smith, former schools minister.
Ruth Kelly was ousted as education secretary to become secretary for communities and local government, a new post taking over the reins of what was Prescott's fiefdom.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS