A humbled British prime minister returns to Britain today to answer critics in his own party after voter backlash against his support for war in Iraq brought an unprecedented trouncing in local elections yesterday.
Mr Tony Blair's aides tried to put the best possible spin on the election defeat while the prime minister attended the funeral of former US President Mr Ronald Reagan in Washington.
But more than 460 Labour officials were voted out of local government, and Mr Blair will have to convince party members with seats in national parliament that they will not suffer the same fate in a general election likely next year.
"I'd like to say I'm sorry to the councillors who've lost their seats," Mr Blair told reporters in Washington before heading home. "I think Iraq has been a shadow over our support."
But he said he was as determined as ever to stay on, and expected Iraq would become less of a liability as news improved with a UN-endorsed plan to restore sovereignty.
Mr Blair supported the US drive to invade Iraq despite strong opposition within his own party.
Ruling parties in Britain often do poorly in local elections only to bounce back and win in national polls.
But for the first time the Labour Party did not even manage to come second. Its 26 per cent left it behind both the main opposition Conservative Party and the strongly anti-war Liberal Democrats, traditionally the smaller third party.
Labour 's majority in parliament under Blair has been so big he would still control the chamber even if scores of his party colleagues were to lose their seats in next year's election.
Party rules make it difficult to remove him as leader, but as more Labour lawmakers fear for their own jobs, there have been growing calls for a new party leader - and hence prime minister - to fight the election.
Mr Blair's ambitious Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr Gordon Brown has been waiting in the wings.
Most Labour figures, while acknowledging a need to learn from what Mr Blair's deputy Mr John Prescott called a "kicking", fell well shy of calling for the party leader's scalp.
But former foreign secretary Ms Robin Cook, who quit the cabinet in protest at the plans for war, said voters who deserted Labour over Iraq would stay away as long as Mr Blair led it.
Ms Clare Short, another outspoken Labour rebel, said voters were punishing Blair because his party couldn't.
"What we did in Iraq has brought disgrace and dishonour on Britain around the world. As Tony Blair won't change the policy, the only way to make a correction is for him to step aside from the leadership," she told the Evening Standard newspaper.
The one bright spot for Labour in this week's election was the re-election of its popular candidate Mr Ken Livingstone as London's mayor last last night.