Labour search for heir after Blair’s swansong
Tony Blair has won widespread praise for an emotional farewell to his ruling Labour Party, but the fate of his successor will only be decided in the crucial months ahead.
By Agencies |
MANCHESTER: Tony Blair has won widespread praise for an emotional farewell to his ruling Labour Party, but the fate of his successor will only be decided in the crucial months ahead.
As Labour’s annual conference entered its final full day Wednesday, renewed questions were asked about whether his finance minister Gordon Brown, the man widely tipped to take over within the year, can ever match up.
The issue of exactly when Mr Blair will leave office also resurfaced after a possible challenger to Mr Brown, Education Secretary Alan Johnson, said the Prime Minister had not given his “farewell concert.”
“Ol’ Blue Eyes will be back,” he told BBC radio. “He’s got gigs in Downing Street and in the Palace of Westminster, and a very important agenda that he set out yesterday about pursuing peace in the Middle East.”
Former US president Bill Clinton — a close personal friend of Mr Blair — was to address delegates later Wednesday on climate change and tackling child poverty. Labour’s 2,01,000-strong membership will be hoping that their party’s fortunes will not follow the same path as Mr Clinton’s Democrats after his natural successor, Al Gore, took over in ’01: election defeat to a right-wing party.
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The Sun tabloid, a Blair cheerleader since 1997, saw problems ahead in its editorial Wednesday, likening his departure to the way in which his Conservative predecessor Margaret Thatcher was dumped after 10 years in 1990.“Has Labour gone stark staring mad? It is hard to reach any other conclusion after seeing the party stand and cheer the most successful leader they’ve ever had — the man they’ve forced out of office,” it said.
The Guardian, a traditional Labour newspaper, said in its editorial, “(As) he finished speaking in Manchester many delegates will have been thinking of what they are about to lose.”
Many British newspapers contrasted Mr Blair’s hour-long swansong address with Mr Brown’s speech 24 hours earlier, suggesting Mr Brown — often seen as a dour and uncharismatic — will have a tough time convincing of his suitability to lead.
“Tony Blair’s last conference speech as party leader was everything that Gordon Brown’s the day before had not been,” the right-of-centre Daily Telegraph said. Mr Blair’s address was, it said, “sharp in its political critique, humanly engaging, witty without being frivolous, and sufficiently original in its insights to be genuinely interesting,” while Mr Brown’s was merely competent.
Environment Secretary David Miliband — tipped to be in the running for a leadership contest — on Wednesday rejected increasing claims Mr Blair was the only Labour politician able to carry forward its vision with popular appeal.
“The great lie is that there’s only one New Labour politician and it’s Tony Blair, and the rest of us want to go back to getting slaughtered 1980s-style,” he told BBC radio.
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