|
Blair gets poll slap in face
16/07/2004 19:31 - (SA)
London - Prime Minister Tony Blair suffered a humiliation, but not a serious scare, on Friday when his party lost one stronghold parliamentary seat and narrowly held on to another as many voters switched to an anti-war party.
Although it was a further sign of public discontent about Iraq, the results are unlikely to destabilise Blair, who was cleared again this week of deliberately exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
The Liberal Democrats, the only mainstream party in Britain to oppose the United States-led invasion, campaigned hard on an anti-war ticket in Birmingham and Leicester, cities in central England with large Muslim populations.
The seats were considered "safe" for the governing Labour Party, which took both in national election landslides in 2001.
'Iraq played big part'
But, the Lib Dems overturned Labour's majority of 13 243 votes to come first in Leicester South and slashed Labour's lead from 11 618 votes to just 460 in Birmingham Hodge Hill.
"Iraq clearly played a huge part," said Philip Cowley, a politics lecturer at Nottingham University.
Government ministers dismissed speculation that Blair, whose popularity has slumped since the war, would step down before national elections expected next year.
Special elections, which often draw low turnouts, are poor predictors of national election results.
- AP
|
News
