Friday, May 6 2005 10:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Prime Minister Tony Blair today (May 6, 2005) secured a historic third straight term in office for his Labour Party in Britain's general elections but with a drastically reduced majority amidst public anger over the Iraq war.

With results of 536 of the 645 declared at 08:50 hrs (IST), Labour secured an absolute majority of 325. Conservatives at that stage got 151 and Liberal Democrats 49.

According to the latest Sky News projection, Labour is expected to get a majority of 80 as against 166 in the 2001 general elections.

Winning his own seat with an increased majority from Sedgefield constituency, Blair who was hit by a Tory revival and a protest vote over the Iraq war, pledged to respond "sensibly and wisely" to the result on his 52nd birthday today.

"I know too that Iraq has been a divisive issue in this country but I hope now that we can unite again and look to the future there and here...it seems as if the it is clear that the British people wanted the return of the Labour Government but with a reduced majority. And we have to respond to that sensibly and wisely and responsibly," he said.

Michael Howard, leader of Britain's Opposition Conservative Party, congratulated Blair on the Labour Party's third straight election victory.

Early outcome of polls held yesterday (May 5, 2005) showed that many people who voted Labour in 1997 and 2001 had deserted the party. Many Labour supporters decided to give Blair a "bloody nose" after the Iraq war became the dominant issue in the second half of the election campaign.

While Labour saw most of its top leadership, including Chancellor Gordon Brown, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and former home secretary David Blunkett elected, the party lost the Bethnal Green and Bow where anti-war Respect party leader George Galloway defeated Labour's Oona King.

Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party after he urged British soldiers not to fight the war in Iraq. He ran as a representative of the Respect Party, which he founded to oppose the Iraq war. He won in Bethnal Green and Bow, an area with the highest concentration of Muslim voters.

The ruling party also lost Hornsey and Wood Green, where the war was a big issue, to the Liberal Democrats, with a huge 14.6 per cent swing. It also lost Putney and Ilford North to the Tories amid a sharp drop in support in London and the South-East.

Gordon Brown, speaking after winning his Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath seat, acknowledged that Labour had suffered a protest vote. He said, "I promise that we will listen and learn so that we can serve our country and our community even better in the years to come."

Although Blair will enter the history books with his third term victory, the sharp drop in his majority will raise a question mark over whether he could remain in Downing Street for anything like the "full term" he wishes to serve.

It would inevitably lead to calls from within the party for an early handover of power to Brown, whose allies believe Labour would have suffered bigger losses if the Chancellor had not played a pivotal role in the campaign.

His smaller majority will also provoke doubts over whether Blair could secure the passage through Parliament of radical public service reforms in the face of Opposition from about 40 left-wing Labour MPs.