Britain: Cabinet ministers in Britain's newly-elected Labour government tried yesterday to shore up support for Tony Blair, amid calls from other senior members of his party for the prime minister to stand down.
As members of parliament return to the House of Commons at Westminster, with Labour's majority slashed from 161 seats to 67 in last week's election, senior supporters of Mr Blair called on MPs to unite behind him and his radical programme of third-term reforms.
The decision by a succession of cabinet ministers David Blunkett, Peter Hain and Tessa Jowell to speak out, highlighted Mr Blair's increased vulnerability following Labour's poorer-than- expected showing at the polls.
A growing number of back-bench MPs are now publicly describing the prime minister as a "lame duck" who must prepare to hand over power to chancellor Gordon Brown. The simmering discontent raises questions over Mr Blair's ability to push legislation through parliament.
Robin Cook, the former Labour foreign secretary who resigned over the Iraq war, said Mr Blair should "be reflecting . . . whether now might be a better time to let a new leader in who could then achieve the unity we need if we are going to go forward".
Frank Dobson, a former Labour health minister, said Mr Blair should stand down, calling him an "enormous liability" at the election. "I don't think prime ministers can go on if a very substantial part of their own party thinks that it would be decent of them to resign," he said in a morning TV broadcast.
"If he had not been leader I doubt whether we would have lost a seat. We would probably have gained some."
However, in a determined show of support for Mr Blair, his cabinet allies lined up to beg the party to unite.
David Blunkett, who has returned to the cabinet in this weekend's reshuffle as work and pensions secretary, dismissed the hopes of many backbench Labour MPs that Mr Blair would effect an early handover to Mr Brown.
There was a need to "build confidence" in Mr Blair after repeated attacks on his integrity during a long and vitriolic election campaign, Mr Blunkett said.
Mr Blunkett's return to cabinet had been widely expected in a post-election reshuffle which otherwise left unchanged the four big posts of finance, foreign and home affairs and the deputy prime minister.
The former home secretary resigned last year after being found to have aided a former lover's nanny obtain a visa.
However, he was among a handful of noted modernisers brought into the new cabinet, underscoring Mr Blair's aim of pressing ahead with a "radical" reform of the UK public sector.