HAVING stuttered to victory at Thursday’s general election, Camden’s Labour MPs Frank Dobson and Glenda Jackson have wasted no time in demanding Prime Minister Tony Blair steps down sooner rather than later.
Both MPs made no secret of their discontent with Mr Blair during their campaigns and after seeing their majorities whittled down to dangerously low levels have been among the party rebels calling for the Prime Minister’s head.
Minutes after her win was confirmed, Ms Jackson told the New Journal: “On the doorsteps, people have been saying ‘we can no longer vote for Tony Blair’. People are angry. They see him as arrogant.”
Mr Dobson, who wants Gordon Brown installed as leader, has made several TV and radio appearances, denouncing Mr Blair. He said: “Tony Blair was an enormous liability in this General Election. If he had not been leader I doubt whether we would have lost a seat.”
Ms Jackson has pulled few punches in her attacks on Mr Blair.
In her election material she told voters that she was angry with the Prime Minister and repeatedly maintained the campaign was not for a presidential-style poll – essentially telling residents that a vote for her was a vote for Labour not Tony Blair.
She kept up the pace in an article for the Mail on Sunday this week in which she again called on Mr Blair to step down. Ms Jackson said: “Mr Blair has never been able to govern by consensus. The Prime Minister said on Friday that he had listened during the campaign and he now knew what the British people wanted.
“Every one of us who fought in this election got the opportunity to listen to the British people. And their message was clear. It’s not New Labour they want. It’s a new prime minister.”