Labor Loses Parliament Seat; Vote Seen as a Rebuff to Blair

Friday, September 19, 2003

By Warren Hoge

New York Times Writer

The defeat is likely to embolden Labor dissidents who were already planning to contest Mr. Blair's policies at the party's annual conference, which begins 10 days from now in Bournemouth. Mr. Blair is expected to use the gathering to try to focus the party's attention on domestic reforms and away from the divisive war as a way of rebuilding public trust in anticipation of the next election, two years from now.

LONDON -- NYT
The Labor Party lost its parliamentary seat in a longtime North London stronghold today in what was seen as a judgment against Prime Minister Tony Blair's involving Britain in the war in Iraq.

The vote in Brent East, the North London district once held by the city's populist current mayor, Ken Livingstone, was the first since the United States and Britain joined forces to invade Iraq six months ago.

The winning party in the final ballot count early this morning in the by-election -- as votes to fill vacancies in nonelection years are called -- were the antiwar Liberal Democrats, Britain's third party.

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat, defeated Robert Evans, a Labor member of the European Parliament, by a 1,118-vote margin to become at 29 the youngest member of the House of Commons. Paul Daisley, whose death in June led to the by-election on Thursday, had won the seat for Labor in 2001 with a 13,047-vote margin.
(More: NYTimes.com International)

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Dan