Blair Says He Is Not Ready to Step Down

Demands to Set Timetable Refused

LONDON, May 8 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair, moving to quell a rising revolt within his Labor Party, said Monday that he would not publicly set a timetable for stepping down because doing so would "paralyze" the government and "therefore damage the country."

"It would not end this distraction but take it to a new level," said Blair, the Bush administration's closest ally in Europe. He was addressing reporters for the first time since a weak showing by Labor in local elections on Thursday and a controversial cabinet reshuffle on Friday.

Combined with recent scandals involving cabinet ministers and Blair's unpopular support for the Iraq war, the election defeat triggered a groundswell of anger among many Labor Party members of Parliament, who said Blair's government has stagnated after nine years in office.

It also deepened divisions in the party between those who solidly support Blair and those who want him to transfer power to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, his presumed successor. In last week's cabinet shuffle, Blair was widely viewed as promoting his loyalists and purging Brown's.

Blair has said that he will not seek a fourth term as prime minister in elections that must be held by mid-2010. He has not said when he will step aside, but Monday he said he would keep his promise to quit early enough to allow a "stable and orderly" transition to his successor.

Noting that it had been only a year since voters gave Labor a third term in office, he said it would be premature for him to step down. He said he was still focused on reforms in education, health, criminal justice and other areas, which he called more important to the public than political wrangling within the party.

"I suggest everyone calms down and lets us get on with the business of governing," he said.

Blair played down reports of a growing rivalry with Brown and said he believed Brown was still loyal to him. He said Brown was "of course" his choice of successor.

Blair also dismissed as "rubbish" reports that Jack Straw was fired as foreign secretary on Friday because he differed with Blair over how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions or that Washington had pressured Blair to fire him over those reported differences.

Responding to published reports that President Bush had not ruled out a tactical nuclear strike against Iran, Straw called the idea "completely nuts" and repeatedly said it was "inconceivable" that Britain would support military action against Iran.

On Monday, Blair used similar language. "I don't know anybody who has even talked or contemplated the prospect of a nuclear strike in Iran, and that would be absolutely absurd," Blair said. Referring to Straw's removal, he said that "any notion that it is linked to the decision about invading Iran -- which, incidentally, we're not going to do -- is utterly absurd."

Derek Wyatt, a Labor member of Parliament, said he agreed that setting a date for Blair's departure would weaken him. But he said Blair needed to consider the long-term future of the party and position it well for the next general election against the Conservative Party and its new leader, David Cameron.

"The party's bigger than any individual," Wyatt said.

He said people in his district were deeply upset about Blair's support for the Iraq war -- in which the first female British soldier was killed over the weekend when a helicopter in which she was riding was shot down. "I've been listening to people in my constituency very carefully for a couple of years," Wyatt said. "And they'd like to see a change at the top."

Labor member of Parliament Jon Cruddas, a former deputy political secretary to Blair, said voters in his working class, east London district were so disillusioned with the Labor government that on Thursday they elected a record 12 local councilors from the anti-immigration British National Party.

"In my district the fascist far-right just got 12 councilors elected," Cruddas said. "I don't think that's a complete affirmation of everything we're doing."