Seven quit government in Blair protest
The Guardian (Some lnks in the original)
Seven members of Tony Blair's government resigned today in protest at the prime minister's reluctance to publicly name a departure date.
One junior minister, Tom Watson, quit as well as six parliamentary private secretaries, after 48 hours of leaks and rampant speculation about an exit timetable.
The open rebellion, after Downing Street dubbed reports of Mr Blair quitting next May "speculation" but did not deny them, led the Conservative leader, David Cameron, to describe the Labour party as in "meltdown."
All seven Labour resignations were from MPs who had signed a round-robin call yesterday for Mr Blair to give a public confirmation of a departure date.
The PM hit back at Mr Watson, calling him "disloyal, discourteous and wrong" for having signed the letter yesterday.
The six PPSs who have quit are Khalid Mahmood, Wayne David, Ian Lucas, Mark Tami, David Wright and Chris Mole.
A parliamentary private secretary is the most junior role in government, essentially a conduit between ministers and backbenchers.
News of the resignations came as Downing Street described reports that Mr Blair would step down next May as "speculation" but said it would not give a "running commentary" on the issue.
The Sun today claimed that Mr Blair would resign as Labour leader on May 31, sparking an eight-week leadership contest that would see him leave Downing Street at the end of July.
As news of the resignations spread, the prime minister retaliated, calling Mr Watson "disloyal, discourteous and wrong" for having signed the document.
Mr Watson - a former chief whip and Blair loyalist - said it was "not in the interest of either the party or the country" for Mr Blair to remain in office.
In his resignation letter to the prime minister he wrote: "It is with the greatest sadness that I have to say that I no longer believe that your remaining in office is in the interest of either the party or the country.
"How and why this situation has arisen no longer matters. I share the view of the overwhelming majority of the party and the country that the only way the party and the government can renew itself in office is urgently to renew its leadership."
The prime minister issued a statement saying: "I had been intending to dismiss him, but wanted to extend to him the courtesy of speaking to him first. Had he come to me privately and expressed his view about the leadership, that would have been one thing.
"But to sign a round robin letter which was then leaked to the press was disloyal, discourteous and wrong. It would therefore have been impossible for him to remain in government.
In a Times interview last week, Mr Blair urged MPs to stop "obsessing" about when he would quit, saying he would not be giving a timetable for his departure.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Menzies Campbell, called on Mr Blair today to either name a date for his resignation or go immediately. "What is at issue is the national interest, which is not being served by the continuing uncertainty over Mr Blair," he said.
Reacting to the resignations, Downing Street announced that Derek Twigg would move from the Department of Transport to replace Mr Watson as junior defence minister. Tom Harris joins the government to replace Mr Twigg as transport minister.
After two conflicting round robin letters from Labour MPs yesterday - one calling for Mr Blair to announce a departure date and the other saying that leaving before the 2007 conference was enough - a succession of cabinet ministers have gone public to say indications of a departure within a year were sufficient.
The environment secretary, David Miliband - often tipped as a future Labour leader - yesterday said it was "reasonable" to assume Mr Blair would be gone within 12 months.
Cabinet ministers appear to have coalesced around this choice of words after yesterday's Mirror revealed details of a "farewell tour" to be made by the PM next summer.
John McDonnell, a left-wing Labour MP, has already pledged to stand against Gordon Brown on an unashamedly socialist platform. Mr McDonnell has likened the intrigues of the past few days to the television programme the Sopranos, urging the party to concentrate on policy issues.
Although Mr Brown has maintained a public silence on the issue, some Scottish MPs have expressed outrage at the dates reported in the Sun, believing such a timescale would leave them in a tricky position during the difficult Scottish and Welsh elections on May 3.
Jim Devine, the Labour MP who won Robin Cook's old Livingstone seat last year, said May 31 would be "totally unacceptable" to the Scottish party.
"The thought that we are going to be running an election campaign for the Scottish parliament between April and May with this type of speculation running, accompanied by a Frank Sinatra-type farewell tour, just will not wash," he said.
However, John Hutton, the work and pensions secretary, today told BBC Breakfast his view "and I think the view of the majority of people, is that the prime minister has made his intentions reasonably clear".
In addition to Mr Miliband and Hilary Armstrong, the social exclusion minister, other Blair allies - Hilary Benn, the international development secretary, and Sir Jeremy Beecham, the chairman of Labour's national executive committee - yesterday said they expected a new leader to be in place within 12 months.
If Mr Blair resigned on May 31, it would mean he had been the prime minister for 10 years and 30 days - still short of Mrs Thatcher's 11 years at the helm.