By Prasun Sonwalkar,
London, Sep 3 (IANS) There is much speculation about what British Prime Minister Tony Blair will do amid growing calls for him to announce a schedule for handing over the Labour Party's leadership to a successor. Will Blair quit 10 Downing Street gracefully or will he be led out unceremoniously a la Margaret Thatcher?
That is the question uppermost in the minds of many inside and outside Whitehall and Westminster, as the prime minister continues to resist demands from colleagues and others to announce a schedule for handing over Labour leadership to a successor.
Even MPs and ministers close to Blair want the uncertainty to end. Now in his third consecutive term as prime minister, Blair is up against growing anti-incumbency sentiment, an unpopular policy on Iraq, a perception that Blair is more of spin than substance -- and sheer familiarity breeding contempt.
Blair has announced he will complete his record third term in office. But party colleagues believe that Labour can never win another election under Blair. They want his successor - widely expected to be Chancellor Gordon Brown - to be in place much before the next general election.
The immediate clamour for Blair announcing a schedule for handing over the party's leadership is prompted by three major elections due in May 2007: English local and mayoral, Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly of Wales.
He may announce a departure date just before the elections in April, but worried MPs say that would be too late and the current situation of drift would damage the party immensely.
Labour MPs are convinced that the party's poor recent showing in local elections will be replicated in the three forthcoming elections if Blair remained at the helm, or if he did not announce his schedule for handing over the party's leadership to his successor. They want him to clearly spell out his future plans at the Labour party's annual conference Sep 24.
Some of the options Labour MPs are considering are forcing a leadership election after enlisting the support of 72 MPs, or a letter to a newspaper demanding a detailed time table for his departure.
It remains to be seen if the increasingly harried-looking Blair too validates Enoch Powell's famous dictum that all political careers end in failure. If Labour MPs are to be believed, his record as prime minister is likely to be sullied if he does not retire gracefully.
Blair made it clear this week that he has no intention of obliging his critics and promised to 'get on with the job' rather than announce a date for his departure.
Uncharitable Labour supporters now allege that Blair is following Margaret Thatcher who once vowed to 'go on and on and on' but had to leave 10 Downing Street unceremoniously after her cabinet refused to back her in a second round of leadership elections in 1990.
Blair told The Times: "I have done what no other prime minister has done before me. I have said that I am not going to go on and on and on and will leave ample time for my successor. Now at some point I think people have to accept that as a reasonable proposition and let me get on with the job."
But this has not satisfied party MPs who are increasingly worried at the bad press Labour is getting every day and the growing ratings of Conservative leader David Cameron.
They fear that any further delay in setting the party house in order would cost it dearly in the next local and general elections.
A union leader, Tony Woodley of the Transport and General Workers Union, has warned Blair not to repeat Thatcher's mistake by staying on too long. He wanted an end to the uncertainty about Blair's plans.
On Friday, several Labour MPs publicly reiterated calls to Blair to announce a date for his retirement, in what is seen as a sign of growing backbench discontent within the party ahead of the conference season.
Former cabinet minister Andrew Smith said the leadership issue needed to be sorted out.
"I think there will be widespread concern among the public as well as among Labour Party members," he told the BBC Today programme.
"I would have thought it is clear to everyone that the debilitating uncertainty over the leadership cannot go on. It is bad for the country, bad for the government, bad for Labour, and ultimately bad for Tony Blair himself."
Caerphilly MP Wayne David, who said Blair should step down before local elections in Scotland and Wales, echoed him saying: "There is a need for renewal of the party and the government now."
The latest Guardian/ICM poll found the Conservatives running nine points ahead of Labour, with the party showing its lowest level of support since the 1987 election.