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Article: Blair secures his third term - but how long will he last at No 10? Labour's majority is slashed. War protest bites in London. Tories retake key marginals. Big swings help Lib Dems
- Article from:
- Belfast Telegraph
- Article date:
- May 6, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Tony Blair saw his majority cut sharply today as Labour was hit by
a Tory revival and a protest vote over the Iraq war. The party was
still heading for a third successivegeneral election victory for the
first time in its history, but suffered a string of surprise defeats.
A BBC projection at 4am forecast that Labour's majority would be
slashed from 167 at the 2001 election to 70. A Sky News projection
put Labour's majority at 72 - still more than halved.
The early results showed that many people who voted Labour in 1997
and 2001 had deserted the party to give Mr Blair a "bloody nose" over
the Iraq war, which became the dominant issue in the second half of
the election campaign.
Labour ...