Blair will stay predicts Major
John Major has predicted that Tony Blair will stay as Prime Minister until he achieves both foreign and domestic stability.
The former Prime Minister dismissed suggestions that Mr Blair would resign, saying he could not credibly leave with the situation as it is in Iraq.
Mr Major told the BBC that he did not see how Tony Blair could “credibly leave at this present time with his policies, I put it kindly, in a state of flux domestically and internationally.”
The only circumstances in which Mr Blair would leave would be if he was “ousted” or because of some “unsuspected health or other problem” required him to depart, suggested Mr Major.
John Major himself experienced a stormy premiership, frequently rocked by infighting, and as such he joked that the attacks on Mr Blair made him “nostalgic”.
Mr Blair’s leadership of the Labour Party was considered impregnable by commentators after he led the party to two massive general election victories.
However the recent internal disputes over Foundation Hospitals and tuition fees, combined with the continuing unrest in Iraq has left him looking vulnerable. Speculation mounted over the weekend that he would hand over power to Gordon Brown in the Autumn.
On Monday Tony Blair told his critics he had no plan to resign his leadership or “cut and run” from Iraq before peace and democracy became political realities for the Iraqi people.
Mr Brown also helped to quell speculation about the Prime Minister’s leadership by backing his public service agenda, saying reforms would go “on and on.”
Last night he told the Social Market Foundation: “Tony Blair and I are working closely on both our spending round and the five year departmental plans for the future: radical plans for investment matched by reform which we and the Cabinet are also working through together, reform plans that we will outline in the next few weeks, reforms on the basis of which Tony Blair will map out the road ahead.”
