LONDON — British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday launched his bid for a second term, calling a June 7 national election that he hopes will yield a landslide victory for his Labor Party to match its triumph four years ago.
Riding a robust economy and a commanding lead in the polls, Blair had been expected to call the vote for May 3 but was forced to postpone it because of a nationwide foot-and-mouth epidemic among livestock.
With the outbreak declared "under control" last week, the announcement was a foregone conclusion. Blair tipped his hand by calling a special Cabinet meeting during a national holiday Monday. On Tuesday afternoon, he made the required trip from 10 Downing St. to Buckingham Palace to ask Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve Parliament so that an election can be held.
The prime minister broke with tradition by announcing the election to students at a London girls school, rather than to the media on the steps of his official residence. He asked for a new mandate.
"Four years has given us the chance to build foundations, but now the work has to go on. There is a lot done, there is a lot more to do, and there is a lot at stake in this election," Blair told the students at St. Savior's and St. Olave's Church of England secondary school in south London.
Speaking as much to his own party as to his audience--the majority of the students are too young to vote--Blair said: "Every vote in this election is precious. No one's support should ever be assumed. That is the strength of our democracy.
"We earned the trust of the people in 1997 after 18 long years of opposition. Today we have to earn that trust again. I stand before you today with a sense both of humility and of hope," he said.
Parliament will be dissolved Monday, and the parties have less than a month to campaign.
Polls consistently show the Labor Party with a lead of 17 to 23 percentage points over the opposition Conservative Party, headed by William Hague.
Blair has warned his election troops against voter apathy in the face of such numbers, but Market & Opinion Research International pollster Bob Worcester said Tuesday that it is virtually "inconceivable" that Hague will be prime minister come June. He said Blair simply is seeking "the biggest thumping majority he could get, just as Margaret Thatcher did in 1983."
