British Prime Minister Tony Blair, ending weeks of speculation, announced on Tuesday a general election for May 5 that he hopes will give his Labour Party a third straight term in power.
”I’ve just been to Buckingham Palace to ask the queen to dissolve Parliament,” Blair told reporters and television crews outside his Downing Street residence. ”There will be a general election in Britain on May 5.”
The date — exactly one month away — had been widely expected for a number of weeks, although it was announced 24 hours later than thought in the aftermath of Saturday’s death of Pope John Paul II.
Blair’s Labour Party is expected to be returned to power, although a crop of new opinion polls on Tuesday said the main opposition Conservatives is catching up and could run them uncomfortably close.
”From now until May 5, I and my colleagues will be out every day, in every part of Britain, talking to the British people about our driving mission for a third term,” Blair said.
He said Labour, in power since May 1997, wants ”to build on the progress made, to accelerate the changes, to widen still further the opportunities available to the British people”.
Above all, the prime minister said, the election is a chance for Labour ”to take that hard-won economic stability, the investment in our public services, and entrench it, make it last for the future, and never return to the economic risks and failing public services of the past”.
”It’s a big choice, a fundamental choice, and there’s a lot at stake,” Blair said, adding: ”Our mission will be driven by values.” — Sapa-AFP