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Brown unaware of Blair's plans
07/05/2006 14:23 - (SA)
London - Tony Blair's likely successor said Sunday he does not know when the British prime minister plans to leave office.
Pressure on Blair to set a public schedule for his departure has been intense since his governing Labour Party came in an embarrassing third place in local elections Thursday.
Treasury chief Gordon Brown is widely expected to succeed Blair whenever he steps down.
Asked on BBC television if he knew when that would be, Brown replied: "No. ... That's actually not a matter for me, because we don't actually know who's going to be the (next) leader of the Labour Party, it's a matter for Tony and the Labour Party themselves."
Seeking to prevent a damaging public split in the party, Brown criticized Labour lawmakers who have publicly urged Blair to quit soon. He would not say when he thought the premier should go.
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We don't need outriders dictating the agenda," he said. "The mainstream position, what the vast majority of people in the Parliamentary party (Labour lawmakers) want, and what I want, what Tony Blair wants ... is a stable and orderly transition."
Brown repeated his assertion that the Labour Party must renew itself to lure back voters who have deserted it, but said he was talking about policies, not a change in leadership. Some have interpreted the call as a coded call for Blair's departure.
"We've had a wake-up call in these local elections," Brown said. "We've got to recognize that we've got to win a new Labour coalition yet again. We've got to build support where we have lost votes."
Blair's government has lurched from one crisis to the next in recent weeks. The poor election showing followed a furore over officials' failure to screen foreign criminals for deportation when they were released from British prisons and allegations that Blair nominated Labour's financial backers to the House of Lords.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's acknowledgment of an extramarital affair less than a week before the vote - and tabloid reports that he had sex with his secretary in his government office - added a lurid element to the government's woes.
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