Blair wins third term, but British voters trim Labour Party majority

LONDON – Tony Blair won a historic third term as prime minister Thursday but his Labour Party suffered a sharply reduced parliamentary majority in apparent punishment for going to war in Iraq, according to projections based on exit polls. A chastened Blair said “we will have to respond to that sensibly and wisely.”

In New York, two small makeshift grenades exploded early Thursday outside a building housing the British Consulate. The blast caused minor damage and no injuries.

A diminished victory for Blair, if confirmed by the actual vote count, could set the stage for him to be replaced in midterm by a party rival such as Gordon Brown. As Treasury chief, Brown was widely credited for the strong economy that appears to have clinched Labour’s victory, outweighing the bitterness many voters said they felt over Iraq.

Blair, bruised by opposition claims that he lied over the war, acknowledged Britons had punished his 8-year-old government.

“I know too that Iraq has been a divisive issue in this country but I hope now that we can unite again and look to the future there and here,” said Blair, as he was comfortably returned to his parliamentary seat in Sedgefield, northern England, despite a challenge from the father of a British soldier killed in the Iraq war.

“It seems as if it is clear … that the British people wanted the return of a Labour government but with a reduced majority. And we have to respond to that sensibly and wisely and responsibly.”

Partial official results showed 283 seats were won by Labour incumbents, 83 went to the Conservatives, 35 went to the Liberal Democrats and 11 went to other smaller parties. Results in 306 of 646 constituencies showed a turnout of about 58 percent of the electorate.

Counting was to continue through the night, and the winner would not be officially confirmed at least until this morning.

But the BBC and ITV television stations projected Labour would win 358 seats in the 646-seat parliament, ahead of the Conservatives with 209. The Liberal Democrats — the only party to have opposed the Iraq war — were projected in third place with 53 seats, for them a disappointing gain of two seats.

The television projections, based on a survey of more than 16,000 voters in 115 closely contested districts, showed Labour with 37 percent of the popular vote, the lowest winning share ever.

Never before has the Labour Party won three straight elections. Margaret Thatcher accomplished the same feat for the Tories, the only other prime minister in modern British history to do so.

But if the BBC projection is correct that Labour’s majority will decline from the current 161 seats to 68, Blair could face difficulties controlling a faction of his party deeply disillusioned with his leadership, especially over Iraq.

“One of the conclusions of this is that he (Blair) certainly does not have a mandate to launch another war along with George Bush,” said Robin Cook, who resigned from Blair’s Cabinet in protest to the war.

Clare Short, who also quit Blair’s Cabinet over the war, said Blair had proved a liability.

“I think everyone agrees we would have done better with a different leader,” Short said.

The White House reacted cautiously. President Bush was expected to make a call to Blair once the vote count became clearer, aides said.

While Blair apparently was diminished in victory, Conservative leader Michael Howard gained stature as his party lost a third straight election but at least showed some signs of life.

The Conservatives were projected to take 33 percent. The Liberal Democrats were in third place with 22 percent.

A big part of the Conservative strategy was to make it a referendum on Blair, urging voters to “wipe the smirk” off his face. Although Howard supported the Iraq war, he attacked Blair, accusing the prime minister of lying about intelligence and the legality of the invasion and lacking a plan to win the peace.