Blair fires home secretary, reshuffles Cabinet

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LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair fired his law and order chief Friday and chose a new foreign secretary in a wide-ranging Cabinet shuffle after his party suffered a heavy defeat in local authority elections.

Blair initiated the shakeup after his Labour Party ran an embarrassing third in English elections on Thursday - a result which prompted renewed calls from some quarters for the prime minister to step down.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke, embroiled in a politically damaging furor over the failure to deport foreign criminals, confirmed Blair had removed him from office. Defense Secretary John Reid replaced Clarke, and Des Browne was promoted from chief secretary at the Treasury to secretary of defense.

Blair removed Jack Straw as foreign secretary, replacing him with Margaret Beckett, who had headed the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She becomes the first woman to hold the job. Geoff Hoon, a former defense secretary, was made junior minister for European affairs within the Foreign Office.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who recently admitted an affair with a secretary, will keep his title but was stripped of the responsibilities of his department, which include housing and planning.

The shakeup appeared aimed at demonstrating Blair still holds a firm grip on his beleaguered government after weeks of negative headlines and scandal.

Blair had defended Clarke over the prisoner controversy, but said Friday: \"I felt that it was very difficult, given the level of genuine public concern, for Charles to continue.\"

Clarke said he had turned down offers of other posts.

In low turnout, Britain's Conservatives won 40 percent of the vote, compared to just 26 percent for Labour.

Conservative leader David Cameron, touring a district in west London which the Tories captured for the first time since the 1960s, said the Cabinet changes would prove insufficient.

\"It'll take far more than a reshuffle,\" Cameron said. \"What we need in this country is a replacement of the government.\"

\"I think what we have seen over the last few hours is that while the Labour Party is collapsing, the Conservative Party is building,\" Cameron said, adding: \"I'm a happy man this morning.\"

Voters in Thursday's elections chose representatives to fill 4,360 seats in 176 local authorities across England, a little less than half of all English councils. London was the biggest battleground, with elections in all 32 boroughs.

Labour's poor showing was likely to embolden those calling for Blair to step down soon or at least offer a timeline as to when he may leave office.

Most Labour members of Parliament \"are saying now that we've got to get the party under new management. It ought to happen fairly soon,\" said Frank Dobson, who was health secretary in Blair's first Cabinet.

Glenda Jackson, a former Labour government minister who has been a persistent critic of Blair, joined the calls for him to step down. \"The problem for the party and its government is its leader,\" she said.

Labour took 1,065 seats, down 251 seats compared with the results of the last election, while the Conservatives won 1,567 seats, a gain of 249. Vote counting was not yet completed.

Labour lost control of 16 local councils - including some boroughs in London - and the Tories gained eight. The far-right British National Party won 13 seats.

A similarly poor local election result for Labour in 2004 didn't stop Blair from leading the party to its third straight national election victory a year later - albeit with a reduced majority in the House of Commons.

Treasury chief Gordon Brown, widely expected to succeed Blair, said voters were concerned about issues of crime, terrorism and their financial and job security.

\"We've got to show in the next few days, not just in the next few weeks, that we are sorting these problems out,\" he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.