Prime Minister Tony Blair Watch: Blair Fires Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, in Electoral Shuffle

Britain’s Leader of the Commons and former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw leaves number 10 Downing Street in London, England May 5, 2006, following a Cabinet reshuffle. Prime Minister Tony Blair sacrificed two top ministers in a major cabinet shakeup on Friday after the Labour Party recorded one of its worst defeats in a local election since coming to power in 1997.

ASSociated Press: Tony Blair Fires Foreign Secretary

Prime Minister Tony Blair fired his law and order chief Friday and chose a new foreign secretary in a wide-ranging Cabinet shuffle a day after his party took a pounding in local elections.

The Labour Party pulled 26 percent of the vote to the Conservatives 40 percent, a result that 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 that Blair had removed him from office. Defense Secretary John Reid was moved to the Home Office, 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.

British MP Margaret Beckett arrives at Downing Street, London for a cabinet reshuffle Friday May, 5, 2006. Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair fired his law and order chief Friday and chose a new foreign secretary in a wide-ranging Cabinet shuffle a day after his party took a pounding in England’s local authority elections. Blair removed Jack Straw as foreign secretary, replacing him with Margaret Beckett, the first woman to hold the job.

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.

The government’s acknowledgment last week that officials had failed to screen 1,023 foreign criminals for deportation before freeing them from prison over the past seven years was particularly damaging.

Good News for the Conservative Party and for foreign relations with Britain. Good riddance to Jack Straw who has been a major apologist for Iran and other Arab interests.

How soon will this change affect Iran – United Nation’s resolutions?

Stay tuned……..

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