Hattersley: Blair should quit
Tony Blair has come under renewed calls to step down as the leader of the Labour party.
Former Labour deputy leader Lord Hattersley urged the prime minister, who is currently in St Petersburg for the G8 summit, to step down in September.
The peer fears that if Mr Blair leaves his resignation any later, it will be too late for the next Labour leader to “breathe new life” into the party before the next election.
He urged the prime minister to leave his post at the next party conference, rather than announce the resignation. He told said he should use the autumn event to highlight his successes and pass the leadership to his successor.
“If we did that I think he’d go out on a high note in the party, I think that’ll ripple out through the country,” Lord Hattersley told GMTV Sunday.
“The longer he stays on the more damaging it is for him as well as the party in my view.”
The peer put his backing behind the chancellor, Gordon Brown, to take over the post at Downing street, saying: “I think Gordon Brown increasingly becomes the ideal next leader of the Labour party.
“I think what the Labour party needs to win the next election is a solemn, serious, if you like, son of the manse. Somebody with visibly and almost ostentatiously contemptuous of spin who wants simply to say it as it is.”
However, Mr Brown might have some competition for the leadership role if Blair were to step down. This week, a Labour backbencher, John McDonnell, announced that he will launch a bid for leader, effectively calling for a vote rather than a succession.
“Some have argued that instead of open democracy, the election of the new leader should be a smooth transition or virtual coronation of his successor,” he said. “This would deny party members the chance of openly debating issues facing our party.”
