Calm plea falls on deaf ears after Blair pledge

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's pledge to quit within a year failed to heal rifts yesterday as his likely successor came under fire from a respected Labour Party heavyweight.

Former Interior Minister Charles Clarke launched a stinging attack on Finance Minister Gordon Brown, the man most expected to succeed Mr Blair after a decade of at times tense and testy relations with his leader.

After a junior minister and seven government aides resigned to protest his continued leadership this week, Mr Blair sought to quell the rising rebellion by promising to be gone within a year. But he refused to give a precise date.

Mr Blair's popularity has tumbled in opinion polls after government scandals over sleaze and mismanagement were compounded by controversy over the wars in Iraq and Lebanon.

Mr Brown and then Mr Blair sought on Thursday to put an end to a week of fevered speculation that had threatened to paralyse the government and left the Labour Party looking divided.

But Mr Clarke, who also recently accused Mr Blair of poor leadership, put paid to any hopes of peace breaking out.

In an interview with yesterday's Evening Standard, Mr Clarke accused Mr Brown of "absolutely stupid behaviour" in the crisis that engulfed the government.

He issued a stark warning that Mr Brown must now "prove his fitness" to succeed Mr Blair and said of his Labour colleagues in parliament: "A lot of them are worried about Gordon and need to be re-assured."

Communities Minister Ruth Kelly, despatched to morning TV shows to calm nerves, instead found herself answering the Clarke broadside by insisting his views did not "represent the centre of gravity in the Labour Party". Trade union chiefs, who help to bankroll the Labour Party, warned that the party risked losing the next election, expected in 2009, unless Mr Blair stood down immediately to give a new leader time to revive support and reshape policy.

"Unless something changes, Labour will lose the next election," said Derek Simpson, head of Britain's second biggest union, the Labour-affiliated Amicus.

"We were massacred at the local elections and in by-elections; we are way behind in the opinion polls."

And the momentum behind Mr Blair's gradual demise showed no sign of easing with banner headlines such as "Blair clings to the wreckage" in the Daily Telegraph and "Slip Slidin Away" in Metro newspaper.

An opinion poll in The Daily Telegraph newspaper suggested 58 per cent of Britons want Mr Blair to resign before the end of the year and 44 per cent as early as this month.

Another poll published by broadcaster Channel 4 on Thursday night showed that 38 per cent of Mr Blair's party members want him to resign as early as this autumn and a further 21 per cent want him to go before local elections next May.

Bookmaker William Hill slashed its odds on Mr Blair quitting before the end of this year.

Key dates for Blair in coming months

An uneasy truce has descended on the Labour party after Tony Blair's promise to go next year but several analysts believe he will be forced out long before then. The following are some key dates in the months ahead.

September 12: Mr Blair addresses the Trades Union Congress, annual conference in Brighton. Many of his modernising initiatives have angered the unions and surveys show sizeable numbers of their members would prefer him to go sooner rather than later.

September 24: Labour annual conference begins. Leader-in-waiting Gordon Brown speaks on September 25 and Mr Blair on

September 26. Under Labour rules, a hostile bid for the leadership can only take place at the conference.

October 9: Parliament returns from the summer recess.

January 1, 2007: Mr Blair releases New Year message.

February 16: Labour's Spring conference in Glasgow.

April 1: Campaigning starts for local government, Scottish and Welsh elections.

May 1: Mr Blair reaches 10 years in power, the milestone he is widely assumed to be aiming for before stepping down.

May 3: Local elections, along with Scottish and Welsh assembly elections.

May 4: The day several newspapers have tipped as the date on which Mr Blair will stand down, triggering a six-week leadership election that will see Mr Brown succeed him by mid-June.