With a historic mandate in his grasp, Prime Minister Tony Blair headed into a second term Friday promising to keep the British economy strong, deliver on social reforms and create a more equitable society.
Final results from Thursday’s election put Blair’s Labor government back in power with a parliamentary majority of 167 seats, 12 fewer than in 1997. But that majority was the biggest in history for a British party in its second term.
Just after dawn Friday, Conservative leader William Hague, 40, faced up to the message of his disastrous campaign and resigned, acknowledging his personal lack of popularity played a large part in his party’s failure.
Blair, 48, paid tribute to his defeated rival as a man who showed “extraordinary stoicism and resilience in very difficult circumstances.” Then the prime minister plunged almost immediately into reorganizing a government that, despite its latest victory, has suffered repeated crises in the past 18 months.
Public reaction to that was reflected in the fact just 59 percent of British voters went to the polls, the lowest turnout since 1918. Some of the biggest abstentions occurred in safe Labor constituencies, indicating either that voters took the outcome for granted or were among left-wingers dissatisfied with Labor’s shift to the center-right in the past four years.
3rd party makes gain
Aside from Labor, the big winner in the election was the centrist Liberal Democrat Party, which won 52 seats, up from 47 in the outgoing Parliament. It was the party’s best showing since 1929, when it was known as the Liberal Party. Liberal Democrat gains came mainly at the expense of the Conservatives, who in turn took some seats away from Labor to emerge with just one more seat than they held when the campaign started.
The final tally was 413 seats for Labor, 166 for the Conservatives, 52 for the Liberal Democrats and 28 for others.
For the third straight day Friday, the British pound dropped in value against the euro, the European single currency. The drop was an indication that markets expect Britain to switch to the euro in Blair’s second term. The pound is valued above the euro, and if the government decides to take Britain into the euro it will have to see that the currencies converge.
Labor plays well on continent
Leaders in other European nations welcomed Blair’s victory and urged him to bring Britain into the euro zone. President Bush, who will visit Europe next week, also congratulated Blair and said he looked forward to working with him.
Blair and his wife, Cherie, spent 45 minutes at Buckingham Palace on Friday morning, receiving the official charge from Queen Elizabeth II for Blair to form a government.
“This has been a remarkable and historic victory for my party,” Blair told reporters assembled later at the 10 Downing St. residence. “There is no doubt what it means. It is a mandate for reform and investment in the future and it is also very clearly an instruction to deliver.”
He promised his new government would reform public services, including health, education and transport; reform the welfare system to encourage more people to take work; and change the criminal justice system to try to reduce crime.
He also said he would strive for “a meritocratic nation, where we lay to one side the old adage about not knowing your place, and create a country with not just a few people at the top but one in which everyone gets a chance to find his true potential.”
Blair also committed his government to continuing commitment in Europe, saying it must have “the self-belief not to turn our back on the world or retreat into isolationism.”
Later Blair reshuffled his Cabinet, the most surprising change being the demotion of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to leader of the House of Commons. He was replaced by Jack Straw, formerly home secretary.
But the ring of the prime minister’s pronouncements was somewhat dulled by a less-than-resounding voter turnout.
Labor’s landslide was achieved with just 25 percent of all 45 million registered voters. Among those who did vote, it won 42.2 percent.
So, while Blair won more seats than Margaret Thatcher did at the peak of her power in the 1980s, his party actually won fewer votes than she did–even fewer than Prime Minister John Major collected in 1992.
Voters turned off
A 59 percent turnout may be good by American standards, because only about half of U.S. voters cast ballots last November. But in Britain, where normal turnout is well above 70 percent, and in the rest of Europe, where it ranges from 70 to 90 percent, such an abstention is dramatic and suggests widespread public disillusionment with politics in general.
David Blunkett, education secretary in Blair’s first government, cited his own party’s campaign style for the poor turnout. He said voters were turned off by “grandstanding” and exaggerated promises.
But the lack of interest was partly generational. Before the election, just 38 percent of young voters said they planned to vote. Voting intentions rose with age, to more than 70 percent among the oldest Britons.
If Blair hopes to re-engage the electorate in his second term, his critics say he will have to be less cautious, less reliant on focus groups and bolder.
In his victory statement Friday, he gave only hints of how he will govern. But he said he had learned many lessons as prime minister, and one was “establishing clear positions of government, setting them out clearly for people, then forging on with them relentlessly whatever events may come and go.”
Blair once said Thatcher did not invent Thatcherism until her second term. His caution in his first term may have been due partly to an awareness that no Labor government had ever served two full terms and he did not want to risk too much. Blair’s second landslide could make him bolder.
