Blair holds commanding 14-point lead over his nearest rival
LONDON, Wednesday (Reuters) Prime Minister Tony Blair has emerged
unscathed from renewed attacks over Iraq to stay on course to win a
historic third consecutive term in power as the campaign entered its
final day on Wednesday.
With political leaders poised for a final flurry of campaigning to
sway undecided voters before Thursday's election, Blair held a
commanding 14-point lead over his nearest rival in one newspaper poll.
The Populus survey for the Times newspaper put Blair's ruling Labour
Party unchanged on 41 percent, with the main opposition Conservatives
down two on 27. The Liberal Democrats gained two points to 23 percent.
If repeated on May 5, that result would return Labour to power with a
large majority and make Blair the first leader in the party's history to
win three terms in a row.
After 10 days of campaigning, the centre-left Labour Party will urge
voters to stop focusing on the Iraq war and questions surrounding
Blair's integrity and concentrate Britain's buoyant economy.
"There are real consequences to a protest vote that risks
inadvertently returning the Conservatives to power," Blair's finance
minister Gordon Brown wrote in the Guardian newspaper. "(It) could lead
to a regressive government."
Michael Howard, who supported the war as leader of the right-wing
Conservatives, will respond with a call for voters to oust a "failing"
government, the BBC reported on its Web site (www.bbc.co.uk/news).
Howard has accused Blair of lying over the advice he received from the
government's top lawyer on the legality of the invasion of Iraq.
Families of British soldiers killed in Iraq said on Tuesday they plan to
launch an attempt to take Blair to court, accusing him of deception.
Blair, Washington's staunchest ally in the 2003 invasion to remove
former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, has repeatedly
defended his actions, saying the world is now safer.
He accuses rivals of making personal attacks because they have
nothing to say on issues such as health and education, which polls
suggest are more important to voters.
The anti-war Liberal Democrat Party, which has gained ground in
opinion polls this week, will say that it is the only "real alternative"
to Labour.
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