Blair in last chance saloon?
Union bosses are to demand the right to have an emergency motion on Iraq at next week’s Labour conference in Bournemouth.
The fallout from the debate, which is likely to go against the Government, could hit Tony Blair’s chances of surviving into an historic third of office.
The RMT union, led by left winger Bob Crow, has prepared the motion for the PM’s tenth conference as Labour leader, which contends there was “no justification” for war against Saddam Hussein’s fallen regime.
The motion calls for the withdrawal of troops and for control of the country to be handed back to the Iraqi people.
While Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has enjoyed his party conference in Brighton, following the byelection victory in Brent East, the story for Tony Blair hangs on the other extreme for the future of his administration has been thrown into the question over Iraq and the Dr David Kelly scandal.
A Mori poll for the FT of nearly 2,000 adults has found that half the voters want to see a change of premier with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown the most popular choice.
The poll asked whether voters agreed with the statement that “it’s now time for Tony Blair to resign and hand over to someone else”. Fifty per cent agreed, 39 per cent disagreed and 11 per cent said they don’t know.
The Mori poll for the FT was conducted between September 11 and 16.
A survey for The Guardian of 108 MPs showed a quarter of them wanted the PM to go.
Disgruntled backbench MPs are likely to criticise the Government next week over a raft of controversial policies including university top-up fees, pensions and foundation hospitals.
On the eve of the conference, John Reid, the Health Secretary, has come forward to challenge elements of his party for being too “conservatives.”
Dr Reid told The Telegraph: “There are some very sincere people who ultimately are conservatives because they want to maintain the status quo.
“For 25 years I’ve heard the same arguments from elements of the Left who have said any change is betrayal. There are some people in the Labour Party who consider themselves ideologues, but what they are is dogmatists.”
Calling on the new breed of leftward leaning union to embrace modernity, he said some trade unionists were “a sad echo of a failed Labour past”.
“There’s no future in the 1970s Labour Party,” he said.
