Cameron mocks Blair as "pop star"

LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) Opposition leader David Cameron mocked Prime Minister Tony Blair, comparing him to a pop star on a farewell tour, and said he should step down early.

The Conservative leader yesterday said it was absurd that Chancellor Gordon Brown was now assured of being Britain's next prime minister but would not actually start the job until the end of June.

Blair announced at the start of this month that he would resign at the end of June after a decade in power.

That left six weeks for the Labour Party to hold a leadership race but the contest quickly petered out because only Brown could muster enough support from Labour MPs to get on the ballot.

''Now that there's not going to be a contest, I really don't think the British people will see any good reason for Tony Blair to hang on like this,'' Cameron told a news conference.

There were urgent problems in Britain that needed sorting out, such as the National Health Service, he said.

Blair has planned a flurry of overseas visits for his last weeks in office. He went to the United States and Iraq last week and will attend summits of the European Union and the Group of Eight leading industrial countries in June.

''In this country, we don't do 'farewell tours'. Tony Blair was elected to be the prime minister of our country, not a pop star,'' Cameron said.

Cameron also defended his party's decision to give up its traditional support for grammar schools, whose pupils are picked on academic aptitude, in favour of non-selective schools. The U-turn has not gone down well with some Conservative activists.

''I'm absolutely passionate about improving standards and discipline and aspiration and opportunity in our schools ..,'' he said.

''In my view the policy idea that has been knocking around for a very long time, that you create a few extra grammar schools in order to do this, is completely delusional.'' REUTERS SM VV0920