Legislators Urge Blair to Set Departure Date

LONDON —  Lawmakers in Tony Blair’s Labor Party are circulating a draft letter calling on the prime minister to set a date for his departure, a legislator told the Associated Press on Sunday.

The letter addressed to the Labor Party’s executive committee was widely reported in the British media Sunday, two days after Blair overhauled his government.

Mounting crises facing the prime minister were cited as the reason for the letter. Some lawmakers said they simply wanted to know who would lead the Labor Party into the next election, which Blair said he would not contest.

Blair has struggled to get his government back on track after his party finished third Thursday in local government elections seen as a referendum on his popularity.

Blair shook up his Cabinet on Friday, but did not alter his oft-stated vow to serve until scheduled elections in 2009.

His government has lurched from one crisis to the next in recent weeks. They include a furor over officials’ failure to screen foreign criminals for deportation when they were released from British prisons, and allegations that Blair nominated the Labor Party’s financial backers to the House of Lords.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper published what it said was a text of the letter.

The letter urged the party’s executive committee, “in consultation with the prime minister, to lay out, no later than the end of the current parliamentary session, a clear timetable and procedure for the election of a new Labour Party leader.”

Parliament closes its session in July.