Howard: PM in office but not in power
Michael Howard today accused Tony Blair of being a “lame duck prime minister, in office but not in power”.
The Conservative leader used this morning’s resignation of work and pensions secretary David Blunkett to insist that the prime minister was losing all authority in government.
During a heated prime minister’s questions, Mr Howard said Mr Blair had now lost one of his few allies in the cabinet – and with it, his hopes of pushing through his programme of reforms of the welfare state before he resigned some time before the next general election.
Mr Blair had been publicly supportive of Mr Blunkett and today again insisted that he left office without a “stain of impropriety” – but the Tory leader claimed this was an indication of the prime minister’s lack of judgment in his final years in the job.
“I quite understand why the prime minister’s judgment in the past few days has been awry – it was [born of a] desire to cling on to [Mr Blunkett], he was one of the prime minister’s last remaining allies in the cabinet,” Mr Howard said.
The prime minister told the Commons that after looking into the allegations against Mr Blunkett, he found only that the minister had failed to consult the parliamentary advisory committee before taking a job – and that he had not abused his position in any way.
As a result, Mr Blair said he “did not believe the allegations warranted his dismissal”, and continued to believe he was a “decent and honourable man”.
In his resignation statement, Mr Blunkett said that one of the main reasons he was stepping down for the second time in a year – he resigned as home secretary last December – was “precisely to protect the government”.
“I am deeply sorry for the embarrassment I have caused to the prime minister – it is the prime minister that some people wish to target. I wish to support him, I wish him to continue, and to carry forward his modernisation agenda,” he told reporters.
For critics of the government, however, Mr Blunkett’s resignation comes too late to avoid damaging Labour, and threatens its programme of reform.
Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman David Laws this morning said the decision by such a prominent cabinet member to quit raised serious questions about whether Labour’s plans for reform would go ahead.
And citing the “squabbling” in the cabinet over health and education reforms and the smoking ban, Mr Howard this afternoon declared to MPs: “The truth is that this prime minister has not only lost his allies but lost his authority.”
He said the past few weeks had shown that Mr Blair was “at the beginning of the final chapter of the end of his administration”, and the departure of Mr Blunkett left just one source of authority in the cabinet – the chancellor, Gordon Brown.
“For how long will the country have to put up with this lame duck prime minister, in office but not in power?” Mr Howard asked.
