Blair back with 'bloody nose'

Blair back with 'bloody nose'
06/05/2005 07:08 - (SA)

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, right, with his wife Cherie return to London's 10 Downing Street, early on Friday. (Lefteris Pitarakis, AP)
SOURCE:

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair clinched a historic third straight term in office on Friday, but with a significantly reduced majority for his Labour Party as voters angered by the Iraq war dealt him "a bloody nose".

The outcome of Thursday's general election called into question Blair's stated intention to serve a full term before handing over the reins of power, most probably to his ambitious finance minister Gordon Brown.

With ballots counted in 580 constituencies at 05:30 (0430 GMT), Labour had won 341 seats in the 646-seat House of Commons, ahead of Michael Howard's Conservatives with 172 seats and the Liberal Democrats with 55 seats.

Scottish and Welsh nationalists and independents took the other seats.

A BBC-ITV exit poll forecast an eventual 66-seat majority, well down from Labour's huge 167-seat majority in the June 2001 election, while Sky News television projected an 80-seat majority.

"To be re-elected for a third time is very special, so it's a tremendous privilege and an honour," Blair told a hall full of cheering supporters in his home district of Sedgefield, northeast England.

"Let's make sure we use it for the good of our country and the people."

But he conceded that his position has been weakened.

"It is clear that the British people wanted the return of the Labour Party, but with a reduced majority," he said. "We have to respond that sensibly, wisely and responsibly."

Michael Howard, cheered by his Tories' strongest performance at the polls since Blair and Labour broke their 18-year run in power in May 1997, conceded defeat, but with a warning to the prime minister.

"I congratulate him (but) I believe that the time has now come for him to deliver on the things that really matter for the people of our country," he told Conservative faithful.

Final results were not due in before late on Friday, when Blair - US President George W Bush's staunchest ally on the world stage - will have already started putting together a new cabinet.

But his opponents wasted no time in savouring his setback.

"We have landed a good hard punch on Mr Blair's nose," said Alex Deane, chief of staff for Tim Collins, education spokesperson for the main opposition Conservative Party.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw admitted on BBC television: "I don't think there's any doubt that Iraq played a part in the reduction in votes (for Labour)."

Blair was keen to fight the election on Labour's stewardship of the robust British economy and the need to press on with much-needed health and education reforms.

But Iraq returned to haunt him, especially when he was forced mid-way through the campaign to publish a secret memo from his attorney general that questioned the legality of invading Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Howard branded Blair a "liar", a rare accusation for one British politician to make to another, while Liberal Democrats chief Charles Kennedy had hoped to cash in on his party's anti-war stance.

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