Half the British public believe Tony Blair should resign, a new poll found, as the prime minister prepared for a difficult annual conference of his ruling Labour party.

In the Mori survey for the Financial Times business daily released Saturday, people were asked whether they agreed with the statement that "it's now time for Tony Blair to resign and hand over to someone else."

Some 64 percent said they were dissatisfied with Blair's performance, an all-time high, according to the FT, which said the results illustrated the extent to which he had lost public trust as a result of the Iraq war..

Fifty percent said they agreed, 39 percent said they disagreed, and 11 percent said they did not know.

Some 64 percent said they were dissatisfied with Blair's performance, an all-time high, according to the FT, which said the results illustrated the extent to which he had lost public trust as a result of the Iraq war.

The failure of international inspectors to find weapons of mass destruction following the conflict and the suicide of British weapons expert David Kelly in July have plunged Blair into the worst crisis of his six-year tenure.

Government scientist Kelly was the source of claims reported by the BBC in May that Britain embellished its case for war on Iraq in a government dossier published a year ago.

The Financial Times poll of nearly 2,000 adults, conducted between September 11 and 16, showed that Labour had a nine-point lead over the opposition Conservatives.

When the same voters are asked how they would vote if finance minister Gordon Brown were Labour leader, the party's lead rose from nine points to 15 points.

Meanwhile, a YouGov poll for Saturday's right-wing Daily Telegraph found Labour had been overtaken by the Conservatives.

It put the Tories on 32 percent, Labour on 31, and the Liberal Democrats, the second biggest opposition party, on 30.

At his party's annual gathering, which opens Sunday in Bournemouth, on England's south coast, Blair faces pressure over his staunch backing for the United States in its March invasion of Iraq, as well as hostility over his push to reform Britain's public sector.

On the eve of his tenth conference as party leader, a survey by the left-wing Guardian daily of 108 backbench Labour MPs -- lawmakers who do not hold positions in government -- found just under a quarter would like Blair to quit immediately.

A similar proportion wanted a "peaceful transition" in the leadership either before or after the next general election, due by 2006. Only just over a quarter offered unconditional support.

Labour has 409 MPs, 262 of whom are backbenchers.

The survey came as the Labour leadership embarked on an intensive round of negotiations to minimize dissent at this year's conference, which according to the Guardian was likely to be one of the bloodiest since Blair was elected leader in 1994.

The paper said leftwingers would attempt to force a ballot on the Iraq war despite the big unions, which command half the vote, agreeing to concentrate their fire on domestic policies such as hospitals, employment rights and pensions.

Peter Mandelson, a former cabinet minister and a Blair confidant, indicated that the prime minister was braced for a rough ride when he said: "At present the government is steering its way through what you might call politically choppy water."

Copyright 2003 AFP

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