World

Britons give Blair historic third term

Tony Blair won a historic third term as prime minister Thursday, but his Labor Party suffered a sharply reduced parliamentary majority in punishment for going to war in Iraq. A chastened Blair said "we will have to respond to that sensibly and wisely and responsibly." The outcome could set the stage for Blair 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 Labor's victory, outweighing the bitterness many voters said they felt over Iraq. With 614 of the 646 House of Commons seats counted, official results showed 352 seats won by Labor, enough to form a government, 191 went to the Conservatives, 59 went to the Liberal Demo-crats - the only major party to oppose the Iraq war - and 12 to other, smaller parties. The BBC projected Labor would win 68 more seats than all the other parties combined - down from its 161-seat margin in the outgoing House of Commons. Sky news put the Labor majority at 70 seats. Results in 610 constituencies showed a turnout of more than 61 percent of the electorate. "I think we can be really proud of what we've achieved," Blair told supporters in London today. "We've got a mandate to govern this country again," he added. Never before has the Labor Party won three straight elections. Margaret Thatcher accomplished the same feat for the Conservatives, the only other prime minister in modern British history to do so. Conservative opposition leader Michael Howard offered the prime minister his congratulations but said Blair had to do more to deliver better health care and lower crime for Britons. "The time has now come for action and not talk from him," Howard said. 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 during the campaign, accusing the prime minister of lying about intelligence and the legality of the invasion and lacking a plan to win the peace. Blair acknowledged earlier today that 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. "It seems as if it is clear … that the British people wanted the return of a Labor government but with a reduced majority."