UK: Blair warns party not to lose governing habit

Glasgow, Feb 17: British Prime Minister Tony Blair, preparing to step down after a decade in power, today told his party it would lose some future election but should never be content with being in opposition.

Blair, speaking at the Labour Party's Youth and Student Conference, appeared to warn its future leaders not to let Labour slip back into the feuding and left-wing policies blamed for keeping it out of power during 18 years of Conservative rule before Blair won the 1997 election.

''We were ... for a long, long period of time a party basically of opposition with intermittent periods of government,'' he said.

''In the years to come, at some point, of course -- not I believe at the next election, but at some point -- we are bound to be in opposition but we should never ever be comfortable with it,'' Blair said.

''If we want to carry on governing, we've got to carry on changing.'' Blair shaped the ''New Labour'' brand, steering his party to the centre in British politics and leading it to three general election victories.

However, many party rank-and-file have never been happy with his free market, pro-American policies, and the Iraq war further undermined his popularity. Blair is expected to step down in June or July and to hand over the leadership to finance minister Gordon Brown, a fellow architect of New Labour.

Labour faces a challenge from a resurgent Conservative Party which consistently leads in the opinion polls.

The next general election is not due until 2009, but Labour's chairwoman Hazel Blears, at the same conference, appeared to raise the possibility of an early election when she spoke of a vote ''in 2008, 2009, whenever the election comes''.

Scottish Challenge

Blair's government faces an immediate challenge in Scotland, where nationalists committed to independence lead Labour in the polls before May elections to the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish National Party hopes to form a coalition government in Scotland that would hold a referendum on independence from Britain within four years.

Blair, in Glasgow on one of several visits he will make to Scotland before the vote, said he would stress the advantages of Scotland remaining in the 300-year-old union with England.

''I don't want people to vote out of fear of separation -- though of course its negative impact on living standards and economic investment is all too clear. I actually want people excited about the prospect of even greater progress and prosperity through a modern union of nations,'' he said.

Labour is currently the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament and governs in Scotland in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Both parties oppose Scottish independence.

Reuters