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Blair fires top ministers
05/05/2006 13:54 - (SA)
London - Prime Minister Tony Blair fired his home secretary on Friday and chose a new foreign secretary in a wide-ranging cabinet shuffle after his party suffered a heavy defeat in local authority elections.
Blair initiated the shake-up after his Labour Party ran an embarrassing third in English elections on Thursday - a result which prompted renewed calls from some quarters for the prime minister to step down.
Home secretary Charles Clarke, embroiled in a politically damaging furore over the failure to deport foreign criminals, confirmed Blair had removed him from office.
Defence secretary John Reid replaced Clarke, and Des Browne was promoted from chief secretary at the treasury to secretary of defence.
Jack Straw demoted
Blair removed Jack Straw as foreign secretary, replacing him with Margaret Beckett, who had headed the department of environment, food and rural affairs.
She became the first woman to hold the job. Geoff Hoon, a former defence secretary, was made junior minister for European affairs within the foreign office.
Prescott stripped of responsibilities
Deputy prime minister John Prescott, who recently admitted an affair with a secretary, would keep his title, but was stripped of the responsibilities of his department, which included housing and planning.
The shake-up appeared aimed at demonstrating that Blair still held a firm grip on his beleaguered government after weeks of negative headlines and scandal.
Blair had defended Clarke over the prisoner controversy, but said: "I felt that it was very difficult, given the level of genuine public concern, for Charles to continue."
Clarke said he had turned down offers of other posts.
Conservatives won 40% of votes
In low turnout, Britain's Conservatives won 40% of the vote, compared to just 26% for Labour.
Conservative leader David Cameron, touring a district in west London, which the Tories captured for the first time since the 1960s, said the cabinet changes would prove insufficient.
Cameron said: "It'll take far more than a reshuffle. What we need in this country is a replacement of the government."
'I'm a happy man'
Cameron said: "I think what we have seen over the last few hours is that while the Labour Party is collapsing, the Conservative Party is building. I'm a happy man this morning."
Voters in Thursday's elections chose representatives to fill 4 360 seats in 176 local authorities across England, a little less than half of all English councils.
London was the biggest battleground, with elections in all 32 boroughs. Labour's poor showing was likely to embolden those calling for Blair to step down soon or at least offer a timeline as to when he might leave office.
Frank Dobson, who was health secretary in Blair's first cabinet said that most Labour members of parliament "are saying now that we've got to get the party under new management, it ought to happen fairly soon".
- AP
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