LONDON, May 10 (UPI) -- A well-respected former minister Wednesday became the latest Labor parliamentarian to urge British Prime Minister Tony Blair to name his departure date.
John Denham, a former Home Office minister and chairman of the influential parliamentary Home Affairs Committee, said Blair needed to make clear his plans for handing over power to a successor to prevent speculation and division damaging the party.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper he said the prime minister was "out of touch" with the mood of the country and that Labor needed "a change in leadership style."
Denham said the parliamentary Labor Party was pleased by Blair's assurances Monday that there would be a stable and orderly transition, but said "people now want to see some evidence of it." He predicted that without any change, the party would experience another year of "drift and division" which would probably make it unelectable.
The intervention of this New Labor loyalist will worry Downing Street, which is attempting to portray those calling for Blair to quit soon as left-wing agitators opposed to his reforms from the outset.
Denham's comments came as the Telegraph newspaper published a YouGov poll suggesting Blair was now the most unpopular Labor prime minister in modern times, satisfying only 26 percent of voters. The poll also showed the Conservative Party surging ahead of Labor, with 37 percent support against 31 percent for the ruling party.
Speaking in Parliament, Conservative Leader David Cameron said Blair had to "go and go soon." The prime minister was now in a "catch-22" situation after having announced last year he would quit by the end of his third term, he suggested.
"If he sets a timetable for leaving, he has told us there will be paralysis, but if he refuses to set a timetable, his government will remain paralyzed," he said.
