Departing Blair defiant despite poll blow

LONDON: Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted on Friday his party can still win the next general election, despite major mid-term poll losses that could see it lose control in Scotland.   

Blair's Labour Party averted the crushing defeat pollsters had predicted in local and regional ballots, as voters gave their final verdict on Blair ahead of his expected departure after 10 years in power.   

His governing centre-left party faces a knife-edge fight to remain the largest party in the Scottish Parliament and is set to lose overall control of the Welsh Assembly.   

In English local elections, the main opposition Conservatives scored gains, earning an estimated 41 per cent of the vote, which the centre-right party said would be enough to oust Labour in a general election that must be held by 2010.   

But Blair, who is expected to set out his departure plans next week, was defiantly upbeat. "Everyone said we were going to get hammered, it was going to be a rout, and it's not turned out like that," he said.   

"We have done rather better in the English elections than we did three years ago and in Wales we are going to retain control and be the largest party and be the government," he added at Labour's London headquarters.   

"You always take a hit in the mid-term but these results provide a perfectly good springboard to go on and win the next general election."   

Finance minister Gordon Brown is likely to lead Labour into that election, but he will take over the reins amid massive voter discontent about the war in Iraq and a series of recent scandals -- as shown in Thursday's vote.   

The fight to be the largest party in the 129-member Scottish Parliament was a two-way tussle between Labour and the centre-left Scottish National Party (SNP), which has vowed a referendum on independence if elected.   

But a storm was brewing over the new electronic vote counting system, with up to 100,000 ballots registered as spoiled.   

The electoral commission began an urgent investigation into the chaos, which blighted several counts. With 95 seats declared, Labour had 38 seats and the SNP 34, with the nationalists gaining 15 seats and Labour losing five.   

The SNP ousted Labour from key seats in Dundee West and Central Fife, both in Brown's backyard. SNP leader Alex Salmond predicted Labour would suffer its lowest share of the vote since 1922, striking a blow to support in one of its traditional heartlands.   

"There's a wind of change blowing through Scottish politics," he said.   

In Wales, Labour remained comfortably the largest party in the 60-seat National Assembly, which has limited powers over areas like health and education, but was set to lose overall control. 

But First Minister Rhodri Morgan said his Labour Party "haven't won but haven't exactly lost," after gains by nationalists Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives made a coalition with the centre-left Liberal Democrats likely.   

In England, where about 10,500 seats were contested in 312 councils, the Conservatives made widespread gains, but failed to secure the seats they hoped for in Labour-stronghold northern cities.   

BBC estimates said the Tories got 41 per cent of the vote, compared to 27 per cent for Labour and 26 per cent for the Liberal Democrats.   

The Conservatives are trying to secure an electoral bridgehead for their return to power at the national level, which they lost in 1997 to Labour.   

Conservative leader David Cameron said his party had enjoyed "a great set of results," some "stunning" gains, and were now "the one national party speaking up for Britain."