World May. 04, 2008 - 05:59AM JST ( 7 )

LONDON —

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s leadership was thrown into question Saturday after his ruling Labour party suffered a local election drubbing capped by the loss of the prize of London mayor.

As Boris Johnson, from the main opposition Conservative Party, took plaudits for ousting maverick left-winger Ken Livingstone in the capital, senior Labour figures were assessing their worst local poll showing in 40 years.

The loss of more than 300 council seats across England and Wales, including in traditional Labour heartlands, came in Brown’s first test at the ballot box since he took over from Tony Blair in June.

The British media called it a “May Day Massacre” for Labour and said Brown faced an uphill battle to stave off the Tories ahead of general elections which must take place by mid-2010.

The prime minister will start his fightback with a series of television interviews Sunday and a planned legislative program.

One Labour backbencher warned him to improve fast or face “really hard talking” and even senior government figures like Home Secretary Jacqui Smith admitted voters had given Labour a “kick in the backside”.

Brown conceded that Labour had performed badly, but blamed concerns about the global credit crunch for the center-left party’s defeat.

“We have lessons to learn from that and then we will move forward,” he said.

The loss in London—seen as a proxy vote between Brown and Tory leader David Cameron—epitomized the scale of the defeat for the government, amid predictions that it would act as a springboard for further Tory gains.

The government went into the polls facing criticism of its recent economic record, botched tax reforms and public anger at rising fuel, food and energy costs.

Many observers considered Johnson a joke candidate at the start of the campaign, but he secured a six-percentage-point victory over Livingstone, who until recently had seemed set to comfortably win a third term.

Until now Johnson, a 43-year-old former journalist-turned-lawmaker, had been mainly known for his performances on a satirical television quiz show and his tendency for high-profile gaffes.

But his campaign for mayor—focusing on claims of cronyism surrounding Livingstone, pledges to tackle crime and set against a backdrop of disaffection with the government—surprised many.

After a ceremony Saturday to accept office, he pledged to “lead the fightback” against violent crime, saying a 15-year-old boy had been stabbed to death in the capital just hours earlier.

He found time for several of his trademark comments, joking that as he did not officially take up office until Sunday it gave the outgoing administration time to cover its tracks.

“I imagine there are shredding machines quietly puffing and panting away in various parts of the building, and quite right too,” he said.

In his acceptance speech in the early hours of Saturday he said he hoped Thursday’s elections showed “that the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted”—11 years after they were voted out of government.

Labour’s Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the party had alienated its traditional working-class voters by scrapping the lowest, 10-pence tax band.

But he insisted Labour could recover to win a fourth consecutive term in government.

“I am very clear that the situation in two years’ time will be different from where we are today,” Straw told BBC radio.

Labour lawmaker Ian Gibson warned, though, that Brown was running out of time to prove he could make a successful transition from a widely admired finance minister to prime minister.

“I’ll give him six months to do it or there will be really hard talking,” Gibson said.

Some commentators predicted the election drubbing signaled the start of the end for the Labour government.

“After an era of dominance that has endured since the mid-1990s, Labour is about to enter the twilight. It threatens to be a slow death,” wrote Jonathan Freedland in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper.

In the local polls, the Conservatives took 44% of the national vote—enough to secure a sizeable parliamentary majority if the results were repeated at a general election.

Labour slumped to third place with 24%, behind the Liberal Democrats on 25 percent.

British newspapers said the prime minister now faced an uphill battle to turn round what many saw an indicator of a Tory renaissance after 11 years in opposition.

Many pointed out that Labour’s May 1 defeat came exactly 11 years to the day after Tony Blair’s landslide win in a general election in 1997. “The May Day Massacre” declared a front page headline in the Independent. “Meltdown for Brown,” said the conservative Daily Telegraph.

Tory leader David Cameron, refused to predict that it meant they would win the next general election, which must be held by mid-2010.

“I think this is a very big moment for the Conservative Party, but I don’t want anyone to think that we would deserve to win an election just on the back of a failing government,” he said.

 

AFP