Rebels circle wounded Blair

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair is under pressure from parts of his Labour Party to say when he will throw in the towel after dismal results in local elections.

A combination of sleaze and accusations of political bungling hurt Labour badly at the polls last week as councillors across the country lost seats in local authorities, giving a resurgent Conservative Party its best result since 1992.

Blair, elected for a third time in 2005, has said he will not fight another election and newspapers on Sunday published a letter from rebel Labour lawmakers calling for a clear timetable for a handover.

A poll of 100 Labour MPs showed that exactly half wanted the prime minister to go and a clutch of Blair critics in his party called for his head on Sunday morning chat shows.

"So long as Tony Blair remains prime minister the Labour party's position will not recover," Labour MP Frank Dobson told the BBC. "These days he is a problem for us."

However, in a show of unity, high-profile cabinet ministers and senior party officials hit out at the rebels, accusing them of plotting a coup and trying to alter Labour's policies.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, who has long coveted the top job and is tipped to lead Labour into the next national election due by mid-2010, led the way by insisting there would be a smooth handover and a renewal of the party to win back voters.

"We don't need outriders dictating the agenda," he told BBC television.

"The mainstream position - what the vast majority of the people in the parliamentary party want, what I want, what Tony Blair wants, what I think the vast majority of the public will want - is a stable and orderly transition."

Elected as Labour leader in 1994, Blair dragged a traditionally left-wing party into the centre ground of politics and ended 18 years in the wilderness three years later when he romped to victory.

Labour's majority was slashed at the 1995 election, partly due to opposition to the Iraq war, but the Conservatives still need to make considerable gains to oust them from government.

Blair has been battling a vocal hard core of rebels who have tried to derail some of his reforms in parliament. But senior party officials say any change of direction would only play into Conservative hands and make it harder to retain power.

Brown, other ministers and party officials said what Labour must do is woo back voters it has lost, especially in the south and London, by addressing their concerns.

"My task with others is to develop the policies and the organisation for the future that can give people security, as well as prosperity," he said, sidestepping the debate about whether he should take over.

"It's not actually about personalities and individuals in the end," he said. "We've got to be pretty surgical and scientific about this ... and broaden our new Labour coalition."

News that foreign prisoners, including rapists, murderers and paedophiles, had been released without being considered for deportation, hurt Labour at the local elections last week. A sex scandal and allegations of sleaze also played a part.

"(Brown) is talking about renewal and he's absolutely right," said former Labour minister Stephen Byers. "Those people who are organising the coup against (Blair), they are playing a very dangerous game, and they should stop."

- REUTERS