MPs tell Blair to come clean on date of departure

At long last the Labour Party have started to move. Blair has up until now refused to give any indication of when he will leave, despite the fact that both the Iraq war and his intransigence over calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon has left him at odds with the party he leads.

Now even once loyal MP's have started to demand that Blair must name the date of his departure.

It emerged yesterday that 17 previously loyalist MPs who entered the Commons in 2001 have signed a letter praising his achievements as Prime Minister but calling on him to go. It is believed the list originally included two ministers ­ Tom Watson, a junior Defence minister and Kevin Brennan, a government whip ­ who later withdrew their names. Blair aides insisted that no such letter had been received in Downing Street. They suggested that supporters of Gordon Brown were behind the plot to push him out.

There is now a sense of mutiny in the Labour ranks. I have said before that a friend of mine who is a Labour peer has always said that Blair will leave the marks of his fingernails on the doors of Number 10 as he leaves, and that does appear to be what we are now witnessing.

He now looks hopelessly disconnected from his party and yet still he clings on, refusing to give any date of when he might depart. It is strangely reminiscent of Thatcher, the only difference being that Thatcher made no secret of her desire to go "on and on".

In a further indication of how disconnected he and his aides have become from reality, a leaked memo reveals how his aides foresee his departure:

The MPs' revolt was fuelled by the leaking of a memo drawn up by Blair aides in April setting out plans for his exit strategy. The ideas in it included a farewell tour to proclaim the "triumph of Blairism" and appearances on Blue Peter and Songs of Praise. The memo said: "He needs to go with the crowds wanting more. He should be the star who won't even play that last encore."

The poor deluded fools who crafted this spectacularly ill thought out memo seem to have ignored the fact that such a moment has long past.

The time for Blair to have gone with dignity would have been when it was revealed that Saddam did not, in fact, have WMD. There would have been honour in such a resignation. Since then, he has clung to office after committing British troops to war on false pretences.

It has been a tawdry affair.

Now he hopes to spin his own exit into something resembling triumphalism.

He is wasting his breath. His political tombstone has already been engraved with the one word that will define his premiership: Iraq.

There is nothing he can do now that will change this fact. And, more importantly, it appears that even once loyal MP's are no longer prepared to play along with his delusions.

The Premiership of Blair is dead. And yet still he refuses to get into his coffin.

It's going to get even messier from here on in. If he's not careful, a Thatcher exit will be designed for him. Tony really ought to realise that a triumphant exit is not going to happen. We all simply want him to go.

Now.

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Tags: Blair, exit strategy, resignation, Labour MP's, letter, timetable, stand, down, resign, revolt