Tony Blair Set for Third Term

Posted on May 6, 2005

Labour lost quite a few seats in the election, but hung onto power, giving Tony Blair a third term as Prime Minister.

Tony Blair promised today to pursue the people's priorities in Labour's unprecedented third term and issued a veiled apology for the shortcomings of the past eight years, as he returned to Downing Street with a much-reduced majority. Standing in front of No 10, Mr Blair acknowledged that Iraq had been a "deeply divisive issue", but said he believed the country was now ready to move on.
He also drew a sharp contrast between the mobbed scenes of triumph in his 1997 victory and today's humble acceptance.

Labour now has a 60 seat majority in Parliament, down from their 165 seat majority in 2001. The Iraq War was the main reason for Labour's less than stellar results in the election and several pro-Blair MP's lost their seats to the anti-war Liberal Democrats. Blair is no fool; he knows he won by the skin of his teeth, and has been quite humble in his victory speeches. To win, Blair had to do all sorts of unpalatable things. He was a guest on a women's show, where he had to field angry questions about the war from citizens. He was clearly unhappy about it, but managed to muddle through it with most of his dignity still intact. He's come as close to an apology for the WMD fiasco as any politician has anywhere in the world.

George Bush reportedly offered to campaign for Blair, or at least make a speech for him, but Blair declined. Instead, Bill Clinton appeared via satellite to rouse British voters. And that strategy appears to have paid off.