Blair suffers election blows

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's political woes mounted yesteray when a poll showed he is now less popular than his main rival and his Labour Party suffered humiliating election setbacks.

The blows are likely to fuel discontent among Labour lawmakers, many of whom want Blair to set a date for handing over to his likely successor, finance minister Gordon Brown.

Labour failed to regain a Welsh parliamentary seat it had lost to an independent candidate last year while in another by-election in London it trailed in fourth, winning fewer votes than a fringe anti-European party.

To compound his woes, an opinion poll in the Daily Telegraph showed David Cameron, the youthful new leader of the opposition Conservatives, had become the first of five Conservative leaders Blair has faced to be more popular than he is.

The YouGov poll showed the Conservatives with a six-point lead over Labour, suggesting the party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher could emerge from years in the political wilderness at the next general election, expected in 2009.

The poll also gave worrying news for Brown, showing voters would prefer a Cameron government to one led by Blair or Brown.