Posted on 05/09/2005 6:31:33 PM PDT by wagglebee
Labour MPs have engaged in a fierce war of words over Prime Minister Tony Blair's future in Downing Street.
Some backbenchers ignored appeals from Cabinet ministers to rally around Mr Blair, issuing new calls for him to quit No 10 sooner rather than later, but one colleague, former welfare reform minister Frank Field, hit back - branding their behaviour "unforgivable" and "treacherous".
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw became the latest Cabinet minister to come to the Prime Minister's aid, insisting that Mr Blair was a "genius" who had been the Labour Party's "salvation".
Mr Blair's position has been called into question by several MPs since last Thursday's General Election, when Labour won an historic third successive term in power but saw its majority cut from 161 to a projected 66.
Mr Blair - who was finalising the post-election reshuffle of the ministerial ranks - will seek to shore up his position on Wednesday when, in an appearance before the Parliamentary Labour Party at Westminster, he is expected to underline his commitment to serving a full third term and call for tighter party discipline.
But the chorus calling for him to step down continued to swell.
John Austin, the Labour MP for Erith and Thamesmead, said that if Mr Blair sought to hang on to his position, he might face a leadership challenge.
Asked whether he was prepared to stand as a "stalking horse" candidate - demonstrating the extent of concern within the party and putting real pressure on Mr Blair to go - Mr Austin said that if he was asked to fulfil that role by his colleagues, he would.
Ian Davidson, the Glasgow South West MP, said: "We have won three terms of a Labour Government - we have got to be immensely grateful to Tony for that - but we have got to look forward, not back."
Asked how long Mr Blair should stay on, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It seems to me 18 months to two years is a reasonable time."
It sounds a lot like what the RINOs are doing to Bush.
Didn't he just win an election? What's this quit crap. Sounds like more whining from the sore losers
He did not actually win, As in, he was not voted for. In Britain they vote for the Party, and the Party chooses the leader (correct me if I am wrong)
If this is how democracy is going to go, then it won't last more than the next 100 years in the West.
Sounds like what the Tories did just before they kicked Maggie out.
Yeah, the British seem to have a habit of "biting the hand that feeds them."
My thoughts as well............
I thought TB won the election.
Another contested election.
Who runs the political agenda.......
The dude that actually won the election.........
Or the whining liberal, obviously slanted media?
Wow.
Now two country's have been infected with this virus.
LVM
Tony Blair is a DINO in the Zell Milller tradition. Yhe Labor (Union) party was in such bad shape after Margaret Thatcher that they went with a LINO (Labor in name only) candidate Tony Blair.
Now after 3 victories in a row the Left (Labor Union Fudes) want control of the labor party returned to them.
It will only take about a third of the labor party members to want control back in the real leftists hands to get it back.
Labor's liberals are taking the party back from the centrists.
They will succeed. Labor will cease being a centrist party and become a very leftist party. It may very well take the supidity of the left to put the Tory's back in power.
Bingo.
Sad but true. The Conservative Party in Britain has been a feckless bunch ever since Thatcher 'retired'.
"He did not actually win, As in, he was not voted for. In Britain they vote for the Party, and the Party chooses the leader (correct me if I am wrong)"
Absolutely right - but of course many voters really voted for a Labour party run by Blair - many voters didn't vote labour because it is run by Blair. Much as I dislike Blair he would be a fool to stand down - this is one devil I am happy to know for the next 4-5 years.
Although Blair's party is basically a leftist party, so that at least makes a little sense. These RINOs often claim to be conservative and then turn around and stab Bush in the back.
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