After a disastrous week for New Labour, in which Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt declared that this has been "the best year ever" for the crippled National Health Service (and was then heckled by nurses at a major speech a few days later), Home Secretary Charles "Jug Ears" Clarke accidentally released hundreds of foreign murderers, rapists and muggers onto the streets (some of whom have re-offended), and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in trouble after it was revealed he had an affir, in 2003, with his secretary Tracy Temple behind his wife's back, the PM Tony Blair is now fighting for his career.
Is Gordon Brown going to become Prime Minister much sooner than we originally thought?
On Thursday, the English Local Elections take place, and an AOL poll found that most people consider New Labour to be even sleazier than the Tories were.
Blair in four-day fight for career
JAMES KIRKUP
POLITICAL EDITOR
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Picture: Daniel Berehulak/ Getty Images
*English local government elections take place in four days
*Insiders believe a disaster at the polls will hasten Blair's departure
*Blair could be forced into a major government reshuffle
Key quote "People will be looking at all this incompetence, but above and beyond that what you see is a terminal loss of authority from Tony Blair," - Tory leader David Cameron
Story in full LABOUR today stumbles into the week that could decide the fate of Tony Blair's premiership. It is a party in crisis, with senior ministers fighting for their political lives and polls showing voters increasingly sick of the government.
Party insiders are more and more convinced that the English local government elections in four days on Thursday will be a disaster for Labour. The polls are all but certain to trigger a new crisis for Mr Blair, intensifying calls within the party for the Prime Minister to name the date of his departure from Downing Street.
One Cabinet minister yesterday admitted that the scandals besetting John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, have made Labour's already bleak prospects even worse.
The warning came amid signs that Labour left-wingers are gearing up to use poor election results as a rallying point for a fresh attempt to force Mr Blair to accelerate his resignation plans.
While the Prime Minister's allies insist he will not be swayed, Labour MPs are predicting he will be forced into a sweeping government reshuffle as early as Friday, with few betting that Mr Blair will be able to save both Mr Prescott and Mr Clarke.
Mr Prescott is struggling to salvage some credibility and dignity after his former mistress yesterday published lascivious details of their two-year affair. Friends said yesterday he is determined to carry on in office, but few MPs think he can ever again be a significant figure in the government or the Labour Party.
Even Mr Blair has accepted that Mr Clarke, the Home Secretary, could be forced out this week should it emerge that more of the foreign former prisoners his department failed to deport have gone on to commit serious crimes.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, yesterday launched a direct attack on the Prime Minister over the government's current troubles. "People will be looking at all this incompetence, but above and beyond that what you see is a terminal loss of authority from Tony Blair," he said.
The current PR disasters follow allegations that Labour sold peerages for cash, that paedophiles were allowed to work in schools, and that a Cabinet minister benefited from an alleged bribe from Italian politicians.
Feeding the sense of crisis within the government were opinion polls showing that weeks of scandal are eroding Labour's support among voters. A YouGov survey put Labour's general support on 32 per cent against 35 for the Conservatives. An ICM poll predicted support for Labour at the polls on Thursday would be 27 per cent, compared to 29 per cent for the Tories.
Alistair Darling, the Scottish Secretary, yesterday gave a bleak assessment of the situation facing the government: "Last week was a bad week for the government, [this] week will be difficult too."
The local election results, he said, "were going to be bad before any of this started".
Should such grim predictions prove accurate, a hard core of Labour MPs are preparing to trigger a leadership challenge against Mr Blair. While the left-wingers lack the numbers to topple the Prime Minister, a public mutiny could reopen the bloody internal battle between Mr Blair's allies and supporters of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor.
Mr Blair has admitted that he has decided the time and circumstances of his intended departure but, contrary to some reports, he has not shared that information with his likely successor.
Mr Darling yesterday insisted that even privately, Mr Blair has not given the Chancellor any indication of his plans: "There is no agreement at the moment."
Mr Blair has told friends that he regards setting a publicly known date for his departure as unacceptable, since he believes it would immediately undermine his authority and effectively put Mr Brown in charge of the government.
thescotsman
Is Gordon Brown going to become Prime Minister much sooner than we originally thought?
On Thursday, the English Local Elections take place, and an AOL poll found that most people consider New Labour to be even sleazier than the Tories were.
Blair in four-day fight for career
JAMES KIRKUP
POLITICAL EDITOR
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Picture: Daniel Berehulak/ Getty Images
*English local government elections take place in four days
*Insiders believe a disaster at the polls will hasten Blair's departure
*Blair could be forced into a major government reshuffle
Key quote "People will be looking at all this incompetence, but above and beyond that what you see is a terminal loss of authority from Tony Blair," - Tory leader David Cameron
Story in full LABOUR today stumbles into the week that could decide the fate of Tony Blair's premiership. It is a party in crisis, with senior ministers fighting for their political lives and polls showing voters increasingly sick of the government.
Party insiders are more and more convinced that the English local government elections in four days on Thursday will be a disaster for Labour. The polls are all but certain to trigger a new crisis for Mr Blair, intensifying calls within the party for the Prime Minister to name the date of his departure from Downing Street.
One Cabinet minister yesterday admitted that the scandals besetting John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, have made Labour's already bleak prospects even worse.
The warning came amid signs that Labour left-wingers are gearing up to use poor election results as a rallying point for a fresh attempt to force Mr Blair to accelerate his resignation plans.
While the Prime Minister's allies insist he will not be swayed, Labour MPs are predicting he will be forced into a sweeping government reshuffle as early as Friday, with few betting that Mr Blair will be able to save both Mr Prescott and Mr Clarke.
Mr Prescott is struggling to salvage some credibility and dignity after his former mistress yesterday published lascivious details of their two-year affair. Friends said yesterday he is determined to carry on in office, but few MPs think he can ever again be a significant figure in the government or the Labour Party.
Even Mr Blair has accepted that Mr Clarke, the Home Secretary, could be forced out this week should it emerge that more of the foreign former prisoners his department failed to deport have gone on to commit serious crimes.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, yesterday launched a direct attack on the Prime Minister over the government's current troubles. "People will be looking at all this incompetence, but above and beyond that what you see is a terminal loss of authority from Tony Blair," he said.
The current PR disasters follow allegations that Labour sold peerages for cash, that paedophiles were allowed to work in schools, and that a Cabinet minister benefited from an alleged bribe from Italian politicians.
Feeding the sense of crisis within the government were opinion polls showing that weeks of scandal are eroding Labour's support among voters. A YouGov survey put Labour's general support on 32 per cent against 35 for the Conservatives. An ICM poll predicted support for Labour at the polls on Thursday would be 27 per cent, compared to 29 per cent for the Tories.
Alistair Darling, the Scottish Secretary, yesterday gave a bleak assessment of the situation facing the government: "Last week was a bad week for the government, [this] week will be difficult too."
The local election results, he said, "were going to be bad before any of this started".
Should such grim predictions prove accurate, a hard core of Labour MPs are preparing to trigger a leadership challenge against Mr Blair. While the left-wingers lack the numbers to topple the Prime Minister, a public mutiny could reopen the bloody internal battle between Mr Blair's allies and supporters of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor.
Mr Blair has admitted that he has decided the time and circumstances of his intended departure but, contrary to some reports, he has not shared that information with his likely successor.
Mr Darling yesterday insisted that even privately, Mr Blair has not given the Chancellor any indication of his plans: "There is no agreement at the moment."
Mr Blair has told friends that he regards setting a publicly known date for his departure as unacceptable, since he believes it would immediately undermine his authority and effectively put Mr Brown in charge of the government.
thescotsman
