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UK's Blair extends lead on campaign's final day
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-04 13:08

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has emerged unscathed from renewed attacks over Iraq to stay on course to win a historic third consecutive term in power as the campaign entered its final day on Wednesday.

With political leaders poised for a final flurry of campaigning to sway undecided voters before Thursday's election, Blair held a commanding 14-point lead over his nearest rival in one newspaper poll.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) gestures as Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown looks away during a joint address to Labour party members and supporters at the Trust Centre in Gloucester, England May 3, 2005. Blair and his opponents fanned out across Britain in a furious campaign finale on Tuesday as polls put the prime minister on track for a third straight term in power despite taking more heavy flak over Iraq.[Reuters]

The Populus survey for the Times newspaper put Blair's ruling Labour Party unchanged on 41 percent, with the main opposition Conservatives down two on 27. The Liberal Democrats gained two points to 23 percent.

If repeated on May 5, that result would return Labour to power with a large majority and make Blair the first leader in the party's history to win three terms in a row.

After 10 days of campaigning, the center-left Labour Party will urge voters on Wednesday to stop focusing on the Iraq war and questions surrounding Blair's integrity and concentrate Britain's buoyant economy.

"There are real consequences to a protest vote that risks inadvertently returning the Conservatives to power," Blair's finance minister Gordon Brown wrote in the Guardian newspaper. "(It) could lead to a regressive government."

Michael Howard, who supported the war as leader of the right-wing Conservatives, will respond with a call for voters to oust a "failing" government, the BBC reported on its Web site (www.bbc.co.uk/news).

Howard has accused Blair of lying over the advice he received from the government's top lawyer on the legality of the invasion of Iraq. Families of British soldiers killed in Iraq said on Tuesday they plan to launch an attempt to take Blair to court, accusing him of deception.

Blair, Washington's staunchest ally in the 2003 invasion to remove former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, has repeatedly defended his actions, saying the world is now safer.

He accuses rivals of making personal attacks because they have nothing to say on issues such as health and education, which polls suggest are more important to voters.

The anti-war Liberal Democrat Party, which has gained ground in opinion polls this week, will say that it is the only "real alternative" to Labour.

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