Ex-minister accuses UK's Blair of lacking leadership

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair today faced a new challenge to his authority when a former senior cabinet minister accused him of losing his ''sense of purpose and direction''.

The extraordinary outburst by Charles Clarke, a former Blair ally, heightened a sense of division and infighting within the Labour Party after nine years in power which has sent its popularity plunging.

Blair, who led the Labour Party to an unprecedented third consecutive general election victory last year, has pledged not to seek a fourth term.

But a series of government scandals over sex, sleaze and mismanagement has fuelled dissent in the party and led to calls for him to step down soon in favour of his probable successor, finance minister Gordon Brown.

Clarke, a Labour Party heavyweight, waited seven weeks after Blair fired him as interior minister before giving a series of interviews in which he said Blair had been wrong to dismiss him.

''I do think there is a sense of Tony (Blair) having lost his sense of purpose and direction, so my advice to him is to recover that sense of purpose and direction...,'' Clarke said in an interview with The Times.

The party's lack of a sense of leadership and direction could be solved either by Blair recovering his reforming leadership -- Clarke's preferred option -- or by Brown being elected leader, he said.

Clarke told The Times he believed Blair would step down in 2008, although other political insiders predict it will happen in the middle of next year.

Clarke did not rule himself out as a candidate to take over from Blair as Labour leader, the newspaper said, although he made clear he believed Brown would succeed.

DAMAGING ERRORS Blair fired Clarke in May in a cabinet shakeup following a disastrous Labour showing in local council elections.

Clarke had been under fire for days over a series of mishaps at the interior ministry, including the release of foreign prisoners who should have been considered for deportation.

The errors were highly damaging to the Labour Party which came to power pledging to be tough on crime.

The resurgent Conservative Party, under new leader David Cameron, has taken advantage of the Labour Party's woes to open an opinion poll lead of as much as 10 points, giving them hope of returning to power at the next election, due in 2009.

Commenting on the interviews, Blair's spokesman said Clarke was entitled to set out the events surrounding his dismissal.

Blair took aim at Labour Party dissidents in an article in Tuesday's Guardian newspaper, calling for an open debate with critics who disagreed with the way he wanted to take the party.

Many Labour Party members have called for a renewal of the party to put the government back on track. Blair made clear he suspected some of them really wanted to scrap the centrist ''New Labour'' policies that had brought the party electoral success.

''In my view, renewing the Labour Party means taking further what we've done,'' he said, saying the party should push ahead with law-and-order policies, break up monopolies and maintain strong alliances with the United States and European Union.

''But if others feel they're not the right policies, and some clearly do, let us debate them openly and candidly... The time for coded references and implied critiques is gone,'' he said.

Reuters SK VP0752