Friday, May 6 2005 08:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Ruling Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, is poised to win a historic third term but with a drastically reduced majority, exit polls indicated today (May 6, 2005).

A Mori/NOP poll of voters who had cast their ballots in today's general elections gave Labour 37 per cent of the vote with the Conservatives on 33 per cent. This would translate into 356 seats for Labour, an overall majority of 66 in the 645-member House of Commons. Labour won the 2001 election with a 165 majority.

Sunderland South became the first constituency to declare, with a win for Labour's Chris Mullin.

Mullin won with a reduced majority of 17,982, and a swing from Labour to the Conservatives of 3.9 per cent, suggesting Labour could be in for a worse night than it feared. The turnout was 49 per cent, similar to 2001.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, expressed doubts at the predicted 66-seat majority.

"I haven't got that impression, but it's too early to tell, too difficult to call. I want to see a Labour Government and there's going to be one, there's no doubt about that. I'm a little suspicious it's as low as you're suggesting," he told the BBC last night (May 5, 2005).

The exit poll may also provoke soul searching among Tories, whose predicted 209 seats would give them the same number of MPs Labour won in 1983 under Michael Foot and the "longest suicide note in history" manifesto.

Liam Fox, the Tory co-chairman, said the party's share of the vote in the exit poll was not an indication of the final result.

"There will be no uniform national swing and no uniform swing. We have to look at this on a constituency by constituency basis," Fox said.

The Liberal Democrats are in third place on 21 per cent, according to the exit polls. The figure represents an improvement on their 18.3 per cent share of the vote in 2001 but falls below party expectations of a breakthrough and may see just two more Lib Dem MPs returned to Parliament than four years ago.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats' deputy leader, refused to concede the party's campaign drive to become the "real alternative" had suffered a defeat.

"Let's wait until the vote is counted and we get final percentages. Our own people are telling us that in the target seats we are going like a bomb."

Labour had 410 MPs in the last Parliament at the time of dissolution, with the Tories and Liberal Democrats with 164 and 54 respectively.

Though neither opposition party believes it can deny Blair a majority, they hope to cut it down to double figures.

Former Cabinet Minister Clare Short, who quit over the Iraq war, said Labour could live "very happily" with a majority of 66 and suggested it could be "good" for the Government.