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Tony Blair has suffered a poor night in England’s local elections as Labour suffers losses of more than 200 seats.
The Tories made big gains, while the Lib Dems had a mixed showing. The BNP has doubled its councillors, including winning 11 in Barking and Dagenham.
The prime minister will reshuffle his Cabinet on Friday as he seeks to regain momentum after days of bad headlines.
The projected vote share if the polls were held nationwide shows the Tories on 40%, Lib Dems 27% and Labour 26%. Turnout is at 36% – down from three points from 2004.
As results arrive from London, where elections are being held in all 32 boroughs, Labour is suffering further losses. The party has so far lost Lewisham, Bexley and Merton and Camden, although it gained Lambeth. Overall, Labour has so far lost overall control of 16 councils, including Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire and Bury in Greater Manchester.
It has also lost its grip on Crawley, which has been Labour-held since the 1970s, to the Conservatives. The Conservatives also took Ealing, Bexley and Hammersmith and Fulham off Labour, as well as winning Hillingdon and Harrow.
Tories get best result since 1992
In David Cameron’s first test as Tory leader, the Conservatives are on course for their best local poll showing since 1992 – when they last won national power.
David Cameron said the party was
offering a moderate alternative
Conservative chairman Francis Maude told BBC News 24: “None of us are… saying we are about to storm into Downing Street. “This is a good start…it looks like where we are is at the top end of people’s expectations.”
MAJOR RESHUFFLE NR.10 CABINET BLAIR’S LAST?
Blair swings axe in cabinet reshuffle after vote thrashing
Charles Clarke, a combative figure who had been under fierce pressure over his department’s failure to deport hundreds of foreign prisoners, was replaced as home secretary by John Reid, a key Blair ally who was defence minister.
Clarke was the most important casualty of the reshuffle triggered by local council elections in England on Thursday that saw the Labour Party suffer its biggest losses since Blair took power nine years ago.
Blair also replaced his defence and foreign ministers and stripped Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott — who admitted an affair with a secretary — of many of his responsibilities.
… Prescott, badly weakened by revelations of his extra-marital affair with a civil service secretary 24 years his junior, hung onto his title but lost his responsibilities for housing and urban affairs.
Margaret Beckett was named as foreign secretary, replacing Jack Straw (WaPo) who becomes leader of the House of Commons, a key position responsible for pushing Blair’s controversial package of public sector reforms through parliament.
Geoff Hoon, who was defense secretary during the Iraq war, then leader of the house, becomes minister of state for Europe — but in a new twist, he will keep his seat at the cabinet table. Those who have held that post in the past have only been considered junior ministers, reporting to the foreign secretary.
The sweeping reshuffle was seen as a clear attempt by Blair to reassert his authority as Labour slides in the opinion polls just a year after he led the party to its third straight general election victory.
Speaking on BBC radio, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (NYT) acknowledged the results the local elections — in which Labour lost some 270 council seats while all its rivals made gains — were a “warning shot” from a frustrated electorate.
Condi and Jack To Remain Close Friends
WASHINGTON (Reuters) May 5 — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called her close friend, outgoing British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, after he was dumped from his key post .
Straw’s demotion — after Prime Minister Tony Blair’s ruling Labour Party’s poor showing in local elections — came little over a month after Rice visited his hometown of Blackburn in northern England, a trip memorable for the throngs of noisy, mostly Muslim, anti-war protesters that dogged her every stop.
Jack Straw and Condoleezza Rice have
a good working relationship
The British media lampooned Straw and Rice in cartoons during the visit, after which the two left protesters behind and went together on a secret trip to Iraq. Britain has been the United States’ closest ally in the Iraq war.
The visit to Blackburn followed one last year by Straw to Rice’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, where the two enjoyed a largely positive reception for their “backyard diplomacy.”
Asked whether Rice viewed the time in Alabama and Blackburn as useful now that Straw was gone from the Foreign Office, McCormack said: “Absolutely, yes, absolutely. Like I said, they were colleagues, but they also developed a great friendship.”
Straw will become leader of the House of Commons.
Firing the Foreign Secretary: On to Iran? ◊ by Smitheus
… Last month, when Sy Hersh revealed that the White House was contemplating a nuclear attack upon Iran, all hell broke loose in British politics as well. Straw made strong statements in public decrying the idea, for example stating that it was “completely nuts“.
… That didn’t look encouraging. I wrote up my thoughts at the time, arguing in detail that Straw appeared to be leading a faction within the British Cabinet opposed to backing Bush’s beligerence toward Iran, while Blair was pushing back hawkishly. What especially disturbed me was the nature of the rhetoric each side was using. They seemed to be reprising the very same arguments that had been deployed in 2002 over Iraq, when several Cabinet ministers had tried to prevent Blair from dragging Britain along behind Bush’s aggressive policies. In 2002, the Bush skeptics were led by David Blunkett and Robin Cook. Straw was in the Blair camp then, it seems, but by 2006 he had decided that he needed to take a stand against this madness.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
we see Jack Straw is gone. When will Blair?
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Thanks for tip – diary has been updated ::
Some Labour backbenchers believe Mr Blair must go further than just overhauling his top team. Former Health Secretary Frank Dobson said a reshuffle would be like “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”.
“Quite frankly we need the party under new management,” said Mr Dobson.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
This is certainly not the Hindenberg…
It is time for Baron Tony and Prime Minister Brown. Blair is still trying to delay the inevitable but the public has spoken and soon the Labour party will as well. With Brown calling it a “warning shot” he is issuing his own.
The Cabinet reshuffle left in place the one person who has to go, Mr. Blair. He cannot last much longer in my opinion and if he does it will be as essentially a lame duck.
Speaking on BBC radio, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (NYT) acknowledged the results the local elections — in which Labour lost some 270 council seats while all its rivals made gains — were a “warning shot” from a frustrated electorate.
You’d think he’d leave for the good of the party, but he gets rid of Jack Straw.
The poodle needs to be put out.
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In March 2005, just before Negroponte took over, Goss told an audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that he was overwhelmed by the many duties of his job, including devoting five hours out of every day to prepare for and deliver the presidential briefings.
“The jobs I’m being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal,” Goss said. “I’m a little amazed at the workload.”
Extended coverage and analysis of his resignation …
"The jobs I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal.""But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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(GovExec.com) Dec. 4, 2005 — According to past and present CIA officials interviewed over the past month, CIA executive director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo — whose career duties have encompassed letting CIA contracts — has had a long, close personal relationship with two contractors identified (though not explicitly named) in court papers as bribing Cunningham: Brent Wilkes of the Wilkes Corp., whose subsidiaries include defense contractor ADCS; and former ADCS consultant Mitchell Wade, until recently president of defense contractor MZM, Inc. It is a relationship, the CIA officials say (with some putting a particular emphasis on Wilkes), that has increasingly been of concern.
One current and two retired senior CIA officials told Government Executive that (as noted last week by reporter Laura Rozen in The American Prospect’s TAPPED blog) the relationship of Wilkes and Foggo — who the CIA’s Web site declares is “under cover and cannot be named at this time,” even though he is pictured and identified on a federal charity web page — has been a subject of increasing concern by some at Langley.
WASHINGTON D.C. (ABC News Exclusive) March 3, 2006 — A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned.
The CIA inspector general has opened an investigation into the spy agency’s executive director, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials.
The CIA inspector general has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo.Odd isn’t it, just a week after Porter Goss sacked Mary McCarthy… working for the IG at the CIA! Opening of Larry Johnson’s diary ::
The case against the CIA Intelligence Officer, Mary McCarthy, fired for her alleged role in leaking information about secret prisons to the Washington Post’s Dana Priest smells a little fishy.
● The Duke Of Hurl! :: Connections MzM Inc. ◊ by Connecticut Man1
Mon Nov 28th, 2005 at 11:12:22 PM PST
≈ Cross-posted from Larry Johnson’s diary — Why Did Goss Resign? ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Getting rid of Straw is a worrying move: Blair is said to have been irritated by Straw’s repeated assertions that attacking Iran is ‘inconceivable’. The Guardian reports that the White House has been asking Downing Street why Straw says such things. Margaret Beckett, on the other hand, is a government loyalist si is this a move towards following Bush in to another great misadventure?
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The very first thing that crossed my mind when I heard Jack Straw was dumped, remember Straw strongarming Colin Powell to get John Bolton from interfering on the new Libya deal?
Margaret Beckett, according to the BBC report, has made no enemies in her political career. Just the nobody Tony Blair was looking for, while he himself sets foreign policy meeting with world leaders.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Did Tony do this all by himself, or did the administration do it for him? This has all the hallmarks of an American-style political move: Appear to act boldly by putting an incompetent and/or pliable “first” in a position (I believe she’s the first woman, IIRC) in which the person’s only responsibility is to follow the script. Think Harriet Miers and Clarence Thomas.
It’s so very transparent, and totally unoriginal. He’s as bad as the rethugs here–not only does he totally kiss Bush’s ass, but seems to wait in line to drink his dirty bath water. Does his wife still respect him?
It’s beyond merely unbecoming by now–at some point, you have to get beyond party or ideology and be concerned about your independence as a duly elected officer. Is he the British Prime Minister or Bush’s boy? Is Denny Hastert or Bill Frist Speaker and Senate Majority Leader or Bush’s boys? (OK, we know Frist is Bush’s boy–how else did he become Majority Leader?). They represent houses of Congress with distinct constitutional roles, and they just go along with whatever shrub says. All three of them shamefully abdicate their responsibilities.
Like I said, the poodle needs to be put out. Here, too.
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By Doug Ireland
The Guardian‘s Ewen MacAskill, their veteran parliamentary reporter, came to the same conclusion in a column today headlined, “Iran is the Key to Jack Straw’s Demotion.” Mr. Straw knew it would be difficult to win support for the military option in cabinet and that it would create even more upheaval among the membership of the already weakened Labour party.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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WASHINGTON (NYT) May 7 — The choice of Gen. Michael V. Hayden of the Air Force as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency is only a first step in a planned overhaul to permanently change the mission and functions of the legendary spy agency. .. to focus the agency on its core mission of fighting terrorism and stealing secrets abroad. General Hayden, who will be nominated to the post on Monday, is currently Mr. Negroponte’s deputy, and he is regarded as an enthusiastic champion of the agency’s adoption of that narrower role.
.. Even as it turns its focus to intelligence collection, through the spying operations overseas that are run by the C.I.A.’s new national clandestine service, the C.I.A. faces a challenge from the Defense Department, which is expanding its own spying operations abroad.
.. Mr. Negroponte himself has had a difficult year trying to bring the Pentagon’s vast intelligence operations under his control. Historically, the Pentagon has controlled more than 80 percent of the nation’s intelligence budget.
.. General Hayden would bring political influence that might be welcomed by the battered managers of the C.I.A., but some officers might resent him as an outsider, a military man and a representative of Mr. Negroponte, according to former agency officials. General Hayden would face the aftermath of a long list of problems that marked Mr. Goss’s brief tenure.
Mr. Goss’s team of brash former Congressional staffers stirred bitter resentment, and the C.I.A. director found himself cast as second fiddle to Mr. Negroponte.
WaPo – Hayden Faces Senate and CIA Hurdles if Named
Porter Goss: Director of the Central Harrassment Agency
By Steven C. Clemons
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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Tony Blair has refused to give a timetable for his departure as prime minister, saying it would “paralyse the proper working of government”.
Blair's reshuffle fails to silence critics as resignation calls grow‘Outstanding figure’
And he said suggestions that he had sacked Jack Straw as foreign secretary over differences with the United States about Iran were “rubbish”. Mr Straw was “an outstanding figure” who had agreed with the prime minister after the last election that he would stand down as foreign secretary “at some point”.
The remarks follow claims that Mr Straw’s demotion was a consequence of him ruling out military action against Iran.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY