Blair loses key ally as problems mount

Britain's Tony Blair suffered a heavy blow yesterday when a scandal-tainted ally quit his government, compounding reverses the Prime Minister has faced since starting his last term in power this year.

Cabinet minister David Blunkett resigned for the second time in less than a year just months after Mr Blair had brought his close colleague back into government, prompting a blistering opposition attack over his judgement.

Problems are mounting for the Prime Minister, who has declared he will not fight another election after winning a third term in May - a move analysts say risks his authority waning as the clock winds down on his premiership.

"We have seen the slow seepage of his authority turn into a haemorrhage," Michael Howard, leader of the opposition Conservatives, told a packed Parliament after Mr Blunkett quit.

"For how long will this country have to put up with this lame duck Prime Minister, in office but not in power?"

Last week, ministers split openly over issues ranging from a ban on smoking in public to an overhaul of the state education system, previously unthinkable for a government which had imposed iron discipline since taking power in 1997.

Mr Blair is also facing an increasingly restive parliamentary party, ready to defy him on a number of issues.

May's election cut Mr Blair's parliamentary majority to 66, about 100 less than he had enjoyed since 1997, meaning just 34 Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) voting with opposition parties can defeat the government.

Mr Blunkett said he had quit to protect Mr Blair from damage. "Tony asked me to stay," he told a news conference. "It could only have damaged the Prime Minister if I had stayed on."

The loss of a loyal ally is a serious blow to Mr Blair as a section of his party wants him to hand power to Finance Minister Gordon Brown sooner rather than later.

It also raises questions about how he rushed a remarkable politician, who overcame blindness and a poor childhood, back into government so quickly - particularly since Mr Blair did the same thing with Peter Mandelson, who was also forced out of office twice.

"Having made the same mistake twice doesn't do much for your credibility," said John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University in Scotland.

Mr Blair insists he will serve a full third term in power and force through radical domestic reforms in the time left.

Mr Curtice said his ability to do so will depend heavily on how Labour fares in nationwide local elections next May.

Mr Blunkett, 59, had been under fire for accepting jobs while briefly out of office, without going through a required procedure for former ministers taking private sector work.

He quit his previous government post of Home Secretary in a sex and abuse-of-office scandal after an inquiry found his office had speeded up a visa for his American lover's nanny.

Mr Blair gave him a new government job just six months later.

Blunkett factfile

British Cabinet minister David Blunkett resigned yesterday after acknowledging he broke rules by failing to seek advice before taking private sector work while briefly out of office. Here are five facts about him:

¤ Blind since birth, Mr Blunkett, 59, uses Braille and has a Black Labrador guide dog called Sadie who slept at his feet in the House of Commons. He made his name in politics as a radical, left-wing Labour councillor in his home town of Sheffield in northern England and entered Parliament in 1987.

¤ Last year Mr Blunkett endured weeks of lurid headlines about a love affair and paternity fight with a married American woman. He quit his previous job as Home Secretary when an inquiry determined that his office had speeded up a visa for his lover's nanny.

¤ Prime Minister Tony Blair took a gamble by bringing Mr Blunkett back into the government as Work and Pensions Secretary after an election in May this year.

¤ Mr Blunkett was born on June 6, 1947. When he was 11 his father, a local gas board employee, fell into a vat of boiling water at work and died after an agonising month in hospital.

¤ A 20-year marriage, from which he has three sons, ended in divorce in 1990. Mr Blunkett has battled in court to gain access to the son of married former lover Kimberley Quinn with whom he had a three-year affair and whose child he claims as his own.