AROUND a hundred Labour MPs will warn Tony Blair that he must confirm publicly he is leaving office next year to avoid a revolt that could topple him from power, The Times was told last night.
Despite signalling through ministers and senior party figures that this year’s conference would be his last and that he would probably go next summer, the MPs were demanding last night that Mr Blair say so himself in order to bow out with dignity.
A variety of scenarios were being floated. One suggested that Mr Blair would stand down as Labour leader in May, after the Scottish and Welsh elections, to allow a leadership election to take place. He would remain as Prime Minister until July 26, when the Commons is expected to rise for the summer recess.
Downing Street refused to be drawn on possible dates, dismissing widespread reports last night that Mr Blair would announce his departure on May 31 as “speculation”.
However, The Times understands that another serious option would be for Mr Blair to trigger the leadership election much sooner, enabling the new leader to take over before the May elections.
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It was clear by the end of yesterday’s dramatic events that Mr Blair no longer had total control of his timetable. Some MPs said that they were not seeking a departure day, only a pledge that it would happen some time next year.
Senior government sources told The Times that Mr Blair may now say more in order to remove all doubt about his readiness to leave and to head off a rebellion which has been joined by six parliamentary aides and one junior minister, Tom Watson.
Five days after telling The Times that he would not elaborate on his promise to allow “ample time” for his successor, Mr Blair was forced into the change of strategy. David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, and Sir Jeremy Beecham, chairman of the party’s national executive, announced that the Prime Minister was now in his final year. There was no complaint from No 10.
The revolt had been sparked by Mr Blair’s refusal to go beyond his promise to allow his successor “ample time”. The Times has been told that more than a hundred MPs are ready to tell him that he should confirm Mr Miliband’s remarks that “the Prime Minister sees himself carrying on for about another 12 months”.
Up to 80 of the MPs, who include known critics of Mr Blair and avowed supporters of Mr Brown plus others who are in the mainstream, will tell Mr Blair through a delegation that they are willing for their names to become public if he refuses to go further. The rest say that they want Mr Blair to know privately of their views.
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The MPs are hoping that a respected party figure — Paul Murphy, the former Northern Ireland Secretary and chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, is a possibility — will put their case.
Some appeared ready to accept Mr Miliband’s word for it. Forty nine were said to have signed a letter drafted by Karen Buck, the MP for Regent’s Park & North Kensington, saying that the Environment Secretary’s clarification had given the party “the certainty that it needs”. But a much bigger number still want to hear it from the Prime Minister.
Formerly loyal members of the 2001 intake of Labour MPs, including one junior minister, faxed Mr Blair suggesting that he should spell out his intentions. Members of the 2005 intake have also been collecting signatures.
Mr Blair had been hoping that his renewed assurances to The Times that he would not “go on and on and on” would be enough to calm party worries. It is understood that he told Mr Brown months ago that he aimed to go next year. But the Chancellor, disappointed after similar assurances in the past, may not have been convinced.
The change of tack came after the leaking of an internal No 10 memo which set out plans for Mr Blair’s farewell, including a nationwide tour and appearances on television programmes such as Blue Peter and Songs of Praise. It suggested that he needed to go “with the crowds wanting more. He should be the star who won’t even play that last encore.”