Blair's Labour Party faces tough fight at local elections

BRITAIN: Tony Blair's name isn't on the ballot but he faces a crucial vote as Britons go to the polls in local elections widely seen as a referendum on the prime minister and his problems.

Blair has suffered through a rough couple of months and voters could use town and city council elections around England to punish him for a slew of scandals.

They include officials' failure to screen 1,000 foreign prisoners for deportation before freeing them, allegations Blair nominated Labour's financial backers to seats in the House of Lords and even the deputy prime minister's extramarital affair.

Voters are choosing representatives to fill 4,360 seats in 176 local authorities and municipal councils across England, a little less than half of all English councils. London is the biggest battleground, with elections in all 32 boroughs.

If Labour candidates fare poorly and the party loses control of councils, it could heighten dissatisfaction with Blair in the party ranks and intensify calls for him to step aside and let his likely successor, Treasury chief Gordon Brown, take over as prime minister.

The string of troubles has left many longtime Labour supporters dispirited and could help the opposition Conservatives and third-party Liberal Democrats snatch seats.

"This is an opportunity to register a protest vote," said north Londoner Steve Harman, who said he votes Labour in national elections but will back the Green Party this time.

Cameron, who took charge of the Tories in December, also faces an important test Thursday - he hopes electoral gains will prove the overhaul he's giving his long-sidelined party is just the medicine it needs. Lackluster results could embolden critics on the party's right who are unhappy he is pulling the party toward the center. Cameron has seized on revelations that the government failed to consider deportation for some foreign criminals when they were released from prison.

The furor over the releases could boost the far-right, anti-immigrant British National Party, which is hoping to pick up seats.

Blair has urged voters to focus on the big picture of Labour's accomplishments rather than the government's recent troubles, which he says are minor and have been hyped by the media.

"I just ask people one question," he said at a south London campaign rally Wednesday. "Think back 10 years ago when the Tories were in government. ... Is the economy not stronger, is the health service not better, are our schools not better equipped, is investment in our communities not greater now than it was?" Crime and immigration are key political issues, so Home Secretary Charles Clarke's announcement last week that officials had failed to properly screen 1,023 foreign criminals for deportation when they were released from prison over the past seven years was potentially very damaging.

Clarke said Wednesday that 38 of the 79 most serious released offenders were still at large.

London, Thursday, AP