Blair plea to rebel MPs

Tony Blair issued a plea for unity at a stormy meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party today as rebel MPs declared it was time for him to go.

The Prime Minister was cheered and applauded by most MPs when he warned that Labour would only win a fourth term in office if the party kept its "discipline".

But a trio of backbenchers, including former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, former transport minister Glenda Jackson and serial rebel Bob Marshall-Andrews, lined up to criticise Mr Blair's leadership. In a highly-charged meeting, each of the critics was booed and hissed by Blair loyalists, but they refused to back down.

Mr Dobson told Mr Blair that the Labour majority in his own seat of Holborn and St Pancras was slashed because of the Iraq war and it was now time to work out how the party could be reinvigorated. Mr Dobson's majority in a normally rock-solid Labour seat was cut from 11,000 to just over 4,000, he said.

Ms Jackson said that she was worried that next year's local elections in London could be a disaster for Labour unless the Prime Minister stood aside. Mr Marshall-Andrews was howled down by his critics at one stage, but restarted his speech regardless.

The MP for Medway told Mr Blair: "The party was losing seats not because we had bad policies but because the Prime Minister is deeply unpopular." He said the problem had to be dealt with "now or we will lose more seats [at] the next election".

One senior party figure said: "It was disappointing to see colleagues shout down Frank and Glenda. You may disagree with them, but that's not how to behave if we are to keep our unity."

Out of the 23 MPs who spoke, five were hostile. Mr Blair warned that their job was to implement the manifesto but that would only happen if Labour was united as a political party.

"Our fourth term will be fought under a different leader but we have to be united. We won [the election] from a centre-left position and it's absolutely crucial that we stay there. The most important thing for us is to build out from the centre rather than lurch to either side of that," he said.

Defence Secretary John Reid said most MPs showed their support for Mr Blair in the 80-minute meeting. "The silent majority are silent no longer. They made their view known and you saw it in a standing ovation," he said.

Mr Blair was loudly applauded when he arrived at the PLP meeting, the first of this Parliament. In a clear reminder to rebels of the dangers of infighting, former leader Lord Kinnock appeared at his first PLP since 1997. The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith also turned up in a symbolic show of support for Mr Blair.

The Prime Minister also stressed that the results on polling day were not uniformly bad across the country.

But Ms Jackson said after the meeting: "If Tony Blair is serious about the Labour Party securing a fourth term, then there's one act he could take above all others to ensure that and that's to step down quickly and cleanly."

Ken Purchase, MP for Wolverhampton North East, said he wanted Mr Blair to go early in the Parliament even though most of his colleagues were still supportive of the Prime Minister.

"A majority would like to see him continue. I would like to see a quite early and orderly succession," he said.

Bob Laxton, MP for Derby North, said that the meeting had at least flushed out those rebels with the courage to face Mr Blair. He said the others should "put up, shut up or piss off".