One in two think Blair should go within a year

BRITAIN: One in two voters in Britain think Prime Minister Tony Blair should step down by this time next year, suggests an opinion poll for BBC television.

The ICM survey for the "Newsnight" public affairs programme found that 29 percent of respondents wanted to see Blair go now, while 21 percent thought he should stay one for no more than 12 more months.

ICM interviewed 1,006 adults between Friday and Sunday, following revelations that Blair's Labour Party had received millions of pounds in undeclared loans from rich supporters who were later nominated to the House of Lords, the upper chamber of parliament.

The ICM poll indicated that Blair's decision to take Britain into the Iraq conflict three years ago had cost him dearly in popularity terms, with 52 percent saying their opinion of him had gone down as a result.

Some 60 percent said they now believed that military action was the wrong thing to do. However, the war does not seem to have harmed the reputation of Brown as much, according to the poll, despite his support for the US and British invasion, with 63 percent saying their opinion of him remains unchanged.

Meanwhile Blair faced another editorial-page appeal to stand down sooner rather than later, as a flap over financing for his Labour Party refused to go away.

"He should go this year," said the Guardian, the voice of England's middle-class liberals which endorsed Labour during the May 2005 election.

Ideally, Blair should leave office before the end of September, when Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown should take his place, the paper said in an editorial.

"He is left with narrowing options and increasingly at the mercy of events. ... The departure must be timely. There is no excuse for foot-dragging," it added.

The Guardian is the third major British periodical in five days to suggest that it is time for Blair to resign, after The Economist on Friday and The Independent the following day.

Blair's spokesman dismissed the calls, saying Monday: "The prime minister is concentrating on getting on with the job."

The credibility of the prime minister - in power since May 1997 - is at stake after revelations that rich Labour Party supporters were nominated for the House of Lords, the upper house of parliament. The nominations came after they made substantial loans which, under party-political financing laws, need not be declared. London, Tuesday AFP