Da The Guardian del 06/05/2005
Originale su http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1477676,00.html

Chastened Labour wins historic third term

A chastened Labour party this morning entered an unprecedented third term with its majority slashed by around 100 seats.

With counts in 27 seats still outstanding, Labour looked likely to be returned with a majority of 66, down from its 165 majority in 2001.

Seats were lost to the Conservatives in London and the south-east while Liberal Democrat candidates ousted sitting Labour MPs in big cities across the nation.

The incomplete results gave Labour 343 seats, the Conservatives 195 and the Liberal Democrats 59. The share of the vote looked much closer, with Labour winning a 36% share of the national vote against the Conservatives, on 33%, and the Liberal Democrats on 22%. That result puts Labour back in office with the lowest share of the vote in British electoral history.

Tony Blair acknowledged that the war in Iraq had been a "divisive issue" as he was re-elected to his Sedgefield constituency. Senior party figures including Gordon Brown and David Blunkett stressed that Labour had to listen to the public.

In a victory speech to party activists in central London early this morning, Mr Blair celebrated the party's historic third term win but acknowledged: "Good comrades have fallen.

"Thank you all very much. How does it feel to be part of a third-term Labour government?" he asked as the crowd cheered and chanted "Four more years! Four more years!"

"We have got a mandate to govern this country again. We have got to listen to the people and respond wisely and sensibly, but they have made it very clear they wanted to carry on with Labour and not go back to the Tory years."

However, Mr Blair's pledge to serve out a third term seemed likely to be undercut by the unexpectedly strong swing against Labour, sparking speculation that the chancellor, Gordon Brown, would take over as prime minister relatively soon.

One of the most bitter failures for Labour last night was the loss of the Blairite Oona King's seat to the former Labour MP George Galloway. He took the seat in Bethnal Green and Bow, in east London, for his antiwar Respect party.

Other ministerial casualties included the schools minister, Stephen Twigg, who lost the Enfield North seat he memorably won from the senior Conservative Michael Portillo in May 1997. The health minister Melanie Johnson and the constitutional affairs minister, Chris Leslie, also fell.

Another former Labour member, Peter Law, took Blaenau Gwent, seat of the former Labour leaders Nye Bevan and Michael Foot, from the Blairite Maggie Jones.

David Mellor's former seat of Putney, in south-west London, returned to the Tories on a 6% swing. Other Conservative gains in the capital and the south-east included Wimbledon, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hemel Hempstead and Ilford North. Elsewhere the Tories won Peterborough, Harwich, Shipley and Monmouth.

In an unusual concession speech, the Conservative leader, Michael Howard, said he would support Mr Blair in office if he delivered on the Tory campaign pledges of cleaner hospitals and reduced immigration.

He said the result was a good one for the Conservatives, who looked to have gained more than 30 seats.

He told a crowd in his Folkestone constituency: "For the Conservative party it marks a real advance towards our recovery. The task which faces us in the next parliament is to complete that recovery, and it is a task I am sure everyone in the Conservative party will address with real relish."

Mr Blair - who turns 52 today - said it was clear from the result that "the British people wanted the return of a Labour government with a reduced majority" and that the party had to respond.

Speaking in Kirkcaldy, Mr Brown marked his re-election to the constituency with a promise that Labour would "listen and learn" in its third term.

The Liberal Democrats increased their share of the vote from 18.3% in 2001 but fell short of the hoped-for breakthrough. The party's vaunted "decapitation strategy" to unseat high-ranking Tories failed, and positioning it to the left of Labour looked to have backfired in seats where the Tories were the main challengers.

Tim Collins, the shadow education secretary, fell to a Liberal Democrat challenge, but the Tory frontbenchers Oliver Letwin, David Davis and Theresa May withstood Charles Kennedy's campaign.

The Liberal Democrats took seats from Labour in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol and London. They also took Solihull and Taunton from the Tories but lost Newbury and Guildford.

In a possible sign of future recriminations over Labour's campaign, Alan Milburn, Labour's election coordinator, told Mr Blair he no longer wanted to serve in the cabinet.

The result may also provoke soul-searching among the Tories, who were condemned to a third successive term in opposition. If the party had taken the 209 seats predicted in the exit polls, the total would have equalled only the number won by Labour in 1983 under Mr Foot, whose manifesto was criticised as "the longest suicide note in history".

Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's former spokesman, said the result showed the Tories were "flatlining".

The Conservatives suffered from a strong gender gap in the exit poll. While 36% of male voters were prepared to back Michael Howard, only 27% of women said they were prepared to do so. This gave Labour an election-winning 12-point lead among women, 39% of whom voted for Tony Blair compared with 37% of men.

Labour had 410 MPs in the last parliament, with the Tories and Liberal Democrats on 164 and 54. Although neither opposition party believed it could deny Mr Blair a majority, they succeeded in their goal of cutting it down to double figures.

Sullo stesso argomento

News in archivio

Energia: crepe nucleari in Gran Bretagna
La British Energy ammette guasti agli impianti di Hartlepool e di Hinkley Point. Fermati i reattori. La società perde in Borsa
su La Nuova Ecologia del 16/10/2006
 
Cos'� ArchivioStampa?
Una finestra sul mondo della cultura, della politica, dell'economia e della scienza. Ogni giorno, una selezione di articoli comparsi sulla stampa italiana e internazionale. [Leggi]
Rassegna personale
Attualmente non hai selezionato directory degli articoli da incrociare.
Sponsor
Contenuti
Notizie dal mondo
Notizie dal mondo
Community
• Forum
Elenco degli utenti

Sono nuovo... registratemi!
Ho dimenticato la password
• Sono già registrato:
User ID

Password
Network
Newsletter

iscriviti cancella
Suggerisci questo sito

Attenzione
I documenti raccolti in questo sito non rappresentano il parere degli autori che si sono limitatati a raccoglierli come strumento di studio e analisi.
Comune di Roma

Questo progetto imprenditoriale ha ottenuto il sostegno del Comune di Roma nell'ambito delle azioni di sviluppo e recupero delle periferie

by Mondo a Colori Media Network s.r.l. 2006-2024
Valid XHTML 1.0, CSS 2.0