TONY BLAIR will try to relaunch his battered Government today after suffering a drubbing in the local elections with heavy losses to the Conservatives in London.
He will reshuffle his Cabinet this morning in a desperate move to turn attention from what appeared to be his party’s worst local election showing since the late 1960s and his own worst night at the polls.
Despite performing poorly in the northern cities, failing to gain a foothold in Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool or Newcastle, the Tories compensated with big gains in London and other parts of the South. Overall the Conservatives were heading for a national share of about 39 per cent of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats and Labour close together on about 27 per cent.
It was a bad night for Labour, especially in the South, although not quite as bad as Labour had feared at the weekend, and Mr Blair will act today to defend his premiership and resist pressure on him to set a timetable for handing over to Gordon Brown.
Nick Brown, one of the Chancellor’s closest allies, said that urgent action was needed to reverse Labour’s “drift” and raised doubts over whether Mr Blair would be able to deliver it. “We can’t drift on,” he told the BBC. “It is pretty clear what has gone wrong and we need to address it.”
Asked if Mr Blair could do it, the former Agriculture Minister replied: “I don’t know, but he has got to try.”
After nearly two weeks of turmoil over the scandals of more than 1,000 foreign prisoners being released without deportation proceedings and John Prescott’s affair with a civil servant, Mr Blair will try to regain the initiative and prevent a fresh internal attack on his premiership.
As the results started coming in, however, it was clear that he was facing a fierce pincer movement from the main opposition parties. In an early London blow, the Conservatives were poised to take Hammmersmith and Fulham from Labour for the first time since 1968. Even worse for Labour, it was on course to lose overall control of its stronghold of Camden in North London. It lost control of Derby, Bury, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent and saw its majorities trimmed in other councils. The Liberal Democrats were picking up seats in the North but appeared to be failing to make the kind of forward leap that Sir Menzies Campbell, the new leader, was hoping for. Even so, they appeared to be on course to take Richmond, Surrey, from the Conservatives.
Labour said that the results showed a north-south divide in the political landscape, with Conservatives making progress in the capital but making little impact in the north of England. “We are not in any way disguising the fact that we are going to have a very bad night in London,” he said. “But the results, while not good, are substantially better in the north of England.”
The Conservatives seized control of Bassetlaw, in Nottinghamshire, and Crawley, in West Sussex, for the first time. They also took overall control of Hastings, East Sussex. The Liberal Democrats held Liverpool, despite losing three seats to Labour, and took control of St Albans and South Lakeland.
The Times has been told that Mr Prescott is to break his silence over the affair and take the blame for his party’s drubbing. He has been close to resigning since last week and it was still uncertain last night whether he had the will to carry on.
The future of Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, also remained in doubt last night as it emerged that a man facing trial on terror charges was not deported as a foreign criminal when he was released from a previous spell in jail. The man is in custody awaiting trial.
Mr Clarke has been told by Mr Blair to sort out the crisis and gave a progress report to the Commons on Thursday. Insiders said, however, that he could still be moved from the Home Office, although not sacked, in today’s changes. All ministers were told to be in London today for the reshuffle and many were travelling back overnight from their constituencies.
Shortly before voting ended last night Mr Blair was warned by aides that internal party polling showed Labour in third place at about 25 per cent of the vote. If borne out by all the results when they are in later today it would be Labour’s worst performance since 1968.
Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, is likely to get her long-expected promotion to the Cabinet this morning and Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister, was being strongly tipped last night to join her.
Mr Prescott, who has been close to resigning several times since the disclosure of his affair with Tracey Temple, his assistant diary secretary, has told friends that he knows he has damaged his party. Ministers say that his indiscretions have been frequently raised as doorstep issues, as has the row over the release of foreign prisoners.
Mr Prescott’s apparent readiness to take the blame for Labour’s worst local election performance for decades may mean that he holds on to his job as Deputy Prime Minsiter and deputy Labour leader. Mr Blair has told him that he does not want him to go.
Friends of Mr Prescott told The Times last night, however, that he remained “brittle” and could still go when he sees the scale of last night’s setbacks. Insiders said that Mr Prescott’s “mea culpa” will come in a BBC interview on Sunday morning.
Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, who led Labour’s campaign in London, said that she had expected the party to do badly in the capital. “I think it is going to be very difficult for us,” she said. “I don’t think we are going to do very well. I think that is a great pity. We have had fantastically good candidates.”
Mr Blair is expected to shuffle his minsiters without dropping many. Alan Johnson was tipped to take over from Patricia Hewitt at Health and John Hutton to move from Work and Pensions to Education, with Ruth Kelly taking his job.
