deep
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Pressure on Blair to step down grows
Saturday, May 06, 2006 08:36:12 pm
LONDON: Pressure on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to resign following his Labour Party's stinging defeat during local elections this week, grew as supporters of prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown were reported on Saturday to be calling for a clear timeline for Blair's departure.
The BBC reported that Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown, long considered his designated successor, had agreed to meet for talks this weekend, while the Left-leaning Guardian newspaper reported that a letter calling on Blair to step down had been circulated among a group of Labour MPs.
"If Mr Blair does not bow to the pressure backbench MPs intend to publish a letter, possibly by the end of next week," wrote the Guardian, which is considered an authority on Labour party matters.
As many as 75 Labour MPs may have signed the circular calling for Blair either to issue a clear timeline for an "orderly transition" or face a formal challenge to his leadership, the Guardian added.
On Friday, Blair responded to Labour's losses of 319 seats in the local elections with a radical shake-up of his cabinet.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke was sacked in the wake of a scandal over his failure to deport foreigners who had served time in the country's prisons, while Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was demoted to the post of leader of the house.
In all, 13 cabinet and senior party posts changed hands in the reshuffle.
The Conservative Party under its new leader David Cameron turned out big winners of the election. The Tories won 40 percent of the vote to take 316 council seats, making it the strongest party at local level.
The Liberal Democrats took 27 percent of the vote, ahead of Labour's 26 percent in the election that saw a voter turnout of only 36 percent.
For the good of the Labour party -
he should go.