British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s party was locked in a struggle for power in Scotland with a pro-independence party on Friday and suffered losses in local elections in England.
About 39-million voters had a last chance to give their verdict on Blair’s decade in power in Thursday’s elections to local councils, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh assembly.
Blair, whose popularity has slumped due to the Iraq war and a series of political scandals, is expected to announce next week he will leave office by July. Finance Minister Gordon Brown, a 56-year-old Scot, is almost certain to succeed him.
Opinion polls had pointed to a drubbing for Blair’s Labour Party in England and suggested that the Scottish National Party (SNP), which wants independence from Britain, could oust Labour as the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament.
SNP leader Alex Salmond has pledged to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2010 if his party wins.
The election in Scotland was too close to call but early results from English councils suggested the night was not going as badly for Labour as some party members had feared.
With 42 of the 129 Scottish Parliament seats decided, Labour had lost six seats. The SNP gained six.
”There is a wind of change blowing through Scottish politics,” Salmond said after winning his Scottish seat.
He complained that tens of thousands of votes had been rejected because voters were confused by complex ballot papers.
The devolved Scottish Parliament, set up in 1999, has powers over areas such as health and education.
Labour, which defends Scotland’s 300-year-old union with England, had campaigned strongly against the SNP, saying that uncertainty created by the SNP’s plan for a referendum on independence could damage Scotland’s economy.
Conservative gains
With results in from about 5 300 local council seats, the opposition Conservatives had gained 232 seats. Labour had lost 140 seats and the opposition Liberal Democrats, the third largest party nationally, were also doing badly, losing 103.
A projection by the BBC found that the Conservatives’ share of the vote had edged up one percent from local elections last year to 41% while Labour also edged up one percent to 27%. The Liberal Democrats’ share dropped one percent.
Labour Party chairperson Hazel Blears said the results disproved predictions of a Labour meltdown. But she acknowledged the party had work to do to energise its voters.
The Conservatives’ projected share of the vote is above the 40% threshold that would give them a chance of winning the next parliamentary election, expected in 2009.
The Conservatives’ 40-year-old leader David Cameron has rejuvenated the party, pushing it towards the centre of politics.
The Conservatives became the biggest party on the council of Birmingham, Britain’s second city, for the first time in 24 years but they struggled to make progress in northern England, again failing to win a single council seat in Manchester.
Blair has been Labour’s most successful leader, winning three parliamentary elections in a row. But polls suggest voters have lost trust in him since he took Britain into the Iraq war.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday that Blair would become a roving ambassador in Africa and the Middle East when he leaves office, but a spokesperson for Blair branded the story ”entirely speculation”. – Reuters