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ABERDEEN, Scotland - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's party was locked in a struggle for power in Scotland with a pro-independence party today and suffered losses in local elections in England.
Some 39 million voters had a last chance to give their verdict on Blair's decade in power in Thursday's elections to local councils, the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly.
Blair, whose popularity has slumped due to the Iraq war and a series of political scandals, is expected to announce next week he will leave office by July. Finance minister Gordon Brown, a 56-year-old Scot, is almost certain to succeed him.
Opinion polls had pointed to a drubbing for Blair's Labour Party in England and suggested that the Scottish National Party (SNP), which wants independence from Britain, could oust Labour as the biggest party in the Scottish parliament.
SNP leader Alex Salmond has pledged to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2010 if his party wins.
But early results suggested the night was not going as badly for Labour as some party members had feared.
With results in from six Scottish constituencies, the SNP ousted Labour in Dundee West, a constituency at the top of its target list, but Labour held on to the Glasgow seat of Kelvin, which was also seen as a possible SNP target.
Jack McConnell, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, took heart from the results so far.
"I think that is an indication that the signs in advance of this evening from Alex Salmond and the SNP that they were on course for a substantial victory were a little bit presumptuous," he told the BBC.
With results in from about 3400 local council seats, the opposition Conservatives had gained 88 seats, taking them roughly equally from Labour and from the Liberal Democrats.
But the Conservatives, after 10 years in opposition, appeared to have failed to make the breakthrough that would put them in a strong position to win the next parliamentary election, expected in 2009.
Leader David Cameron has steered the Conservatives back to the centre ground as he attempts to rebuild the party.
But they are having difficulty extending their reach into northern cities in England, such as Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, which have no Conservative councillors at all.
Blair has been Labour's most successful leader, winning three parliamentary elections in a row. But polls suggest voters have lost trust in him since he took Britain into the Iraq war.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday that Blair would become a roving ambassador in Africa and the Middle East when he leaves office, but a spokesman for Blair branded the story "entirely speculation".
In Scotland, some voters made clear they voted for the SNP as a protest against Labour rather than because they wanted independence.
"Labour needs a good kicking. They are too proud, they've been in too long and they think they can't do any wrong," said John Fraser, 71, who runs a Christian community centre in the northern Scottish city of Aberdeen.
Labour, which defends Scotland's 300-year-old union with England, had campaigned strongly against the SNP, alleging that uncertainty created by the SNP's plan for a referendum on independence could damage Scotland's economy.
- REUTERS
