Tony Blair Shuffles British Cabinet

Follows Poor Showing In Elections; Foreign, Home Secretaries Out

(CBS/AP) 
Glenda Jackson, a former Labour government minister who has been a persistent critic of Blair, joined the calls for him to go. "The problem for the party and its government is its leader," the former actress said.

"The only reshuffle that is going to begin to rebuild trust between the party and the electorate is around the leadership."

Thursday's vote was widely seen as a referendum on Blair's government, and Cameron emerged as the main winner.

"I'm a happy man this morning," said Cameron, who took over the party in December.

Labour took 1,065 seats in incomplete counting, down 251 seats compared with the results of the last election. The Conservatives won 1,567 seats, a gain of 249. Labour lost control of 16 local councils — including some boroughs in London — and the Tories gained eight.

The far-right British National Party won 13 seats.

Labour also did badly in the 2004 local vote but that didn't stop Blair from leading the party to its third straight national election victory a year later — albeit with a reduced majority in the House of Commons.

Treasury chief Gordon Brown, the main expected to succeed Blair, said voters were concerned about issues of crime, terrorism and their financial and job security. "We've got to show in the next few days, not just in the next few weeks, that we are sorting these problems out," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Voters in Thursday's elections chose representatives to fill 4,360 seats in 176 local authorities across England, a little less than half of all English councils. London was the biggest battleground, with elections in all 32 boroughs.

Blair has said he won't run again, reports Barker. This election setback will put more pressure on him to announce a departure date.

"He's had 19 months to give us a timetable for his dignified 'handover,'" said Jackson. "I think he should be doing that this weekend."

Most Labour members of Parliament "are saying now that we've got to get the party under new management. It ought to happen fairly soon," said Frank Dobson, who was health secretary in Blair's first Cabinet.

The government's acknowledgment last week that officials had failed to screen 1,023 foreign criminals for deportation before freeing them from prison over the past seven years was particularly damaging.