British voters have delivered a humiliating rebuke to Tony Blair in two by-elections in supposedly safe Labour seats in the Government's first electoral test after the damning Butler inquiry into Iraq intelligence. Massive swings against Labour cost the party Leicester South and reduced its previous 11,000-majority in Birmingham Hodge Hill to just 460 votes, a 27 per cent swing. The Health Secretary, John Reid, said: "I am not saying we are delighted with the result, but given all the circumstances it's a relatively good result for us. It's not an unsatisfactory result."
Both seats have big Muslim and blue-collar populations that traditionally support Labour, but they appear to have been alienated by the Iraq war and angered by Lord Butler's revelations. The swings against Labour come a month after the party's poor showing in elections for the European Parliament. The victorious Liberal Democrat candidate in Leicester, Parmjit Singh Gill, who took the seat with a 21 per cent swing, said the voters had spoken for the people of Britain.
Which 'voters'?
Their message was that Mr Blair had abused and lost their trust, he said. The results and the ramifications of the Butler inquiry will stall Labour's efforts to put Iraq behind it and refocus on the domestic agenda before the next general election, expected in May. The main Opposition Conservatives were beaten into third in both seats. The Butler fallout has included a call by the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith for the intelligence chief, John Scarlett, author of the discredited Government Iraq dossier, to stand aside as the new head of MI6. The retiring head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, has reportedly told friends that Mr Scarlett's closeness to Downing Street and public exposure make him unsuitable for the job. Mr Scarlett, who was described as a mate by Mr Blair's former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, was the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee that prepared the flawed dossier used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Downing Street has said Mr Blair has full confidence in Mr Scarlett's ability. |