The Hindu : International : Labour MPs want Blair to quit

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Monday, May 09, 2005

International

International

Labour MPs want Blair to quit

Hasan Suroor

"Gordon Brown more acceptable"

LONDON: Barely two days after leading the Labour Party to victory, Prime Minister Tony Blair was on Sunday facing growing calls to quit and take responsibility for the heavy losses suffered by the party in the elections.

The pressure on Mr. Blair to resign intensified after many Labour candidates blamed their defeat on him saying that he had become a liability.

Supporters join chorus

Although the call for a "regime change'' was led by the "usual suspects'', who have always opposed Mr. Blair, several known Blair-ites also joined the chorus demanding that he set out a time-table for his exit.

Among the Blair-ites, who believed that they lost because of Mr. Blair's policies, was said to be Anne Campbell who was defeated though she had voted against the Iraq war.

She was reported as saying that a "lot of people'' told her that if Gordon Brown had been Prime Minister they would have voted for the party. Left-wing MPs were particularly hostile with John McDonnell of the Socialist Campaign Group saying that Mr. Blair was no longer acceptable to the people.

"In terms of Tony Blair's rating personally on the doorstep, I encountered absolute animosity,'' he said.

Mr. Blair has already said that he would step down at the end of the current term but increasingly MPs want him to leave earlier.

The former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's demand that Mr. Blair should indicate a time-frame for his departure was echoed by others, and one Sunday newspaper claimed that at least 30 of the 100 Labour MPs it contacted wanted Mr. Blair to "go sooner than later, many within a year''.

Even as Downing Street tried to play down the controversy, there was speculation that Mr Blair was likely face awkward questions at the first post-election meeting of the parliamentary party on Tuesday.

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