Exit Polls: Blair Wins Historic Third Term
Charles Johnson
Thu May 5, 2005 at 6:46 pm PDT • Views: 294
Good news from Britain, where according to exit polls, Tony Blair is going to have a historic third term as Prime Minister.
LONDON - Tony Blair won a historic third term as prime minister Thursday but his Labour Party suffered a sharply reduced parliamentary majority in apparent punishment for going to war in Iraq, according to projections based on exit polls.
Such an outcome, if confirmed by the actual vote count, 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 Labour’s victory, outweighing the bitterness many voters said they felt over Iraq.
“I know 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,” Blair said after results gave him a resounding victory in his constituency of Sedgefield in northeastern England, despite a challenge from the father of a British soldier killed in the Iraq war. Blair had to win his seat to keep his job as prime minister.
The BBC and ITV television stations projected Labour would win 358 seats in the 646-seat parliament, ahead of the Conservatives with 209. The Liberal Democrats — the only party to have opposed the Iraq war — were projected in third place with 53 seats, for them a disappointing gain of two seats.
And I think these are reliable exit polls, not Wonkette exit polls.
Frank says: