London / Suffolk Coastal, 08/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - British Conservatives have clearly failed in their attempt to place the euro at the heart of the electoral campaign and to beat Tony Blair on this issue. The landslide victory by Labour at the general elections of 7 June was, however, blemished by the record abstention rate (around 41%). Labour keeps its very large majority, with 413 seats (6 less than in 1997), against 164 for the Conservatives, 53 for the Liberal Democrats and 28 for the other parties. Tony Blair welcomed this "historic moment" (two major victories in a row by Labour, something that had not happened for a century) as being the logical and necessary continuation for work begun four years ago. He said on Friday morning that they had always known that, to accomplish what they had set out to do, it would take more than one term of office. At the same time, the leader of the Conservatives, William Hague, announced his resignation, opening the road to a battle between successors, a battle in which the party's position compared to Europe and the euro will not be one of the minor issues. Former European Commissioner (Conservative) Leon Brittan, considers the Tories must now take their pro-European voters into account. It is impossible to win an election any other way, he told Sky Television.
The referendum on the euro will be the next major political and economic debate in the United Kingdom. On Friday morning, Labour were sticking to a strictly economic vision of this debate, reaffirming that the referendum will be convened once the five economic conditions that they have set themselves have been met. If British voters did not turn up at the ballot boxes on Thursday to "Save the Pound" as the Conservatives had asked of them, it means the question is still far from being settled. The pound fell again on Friday, after William Hague had announced his resignation and after Labour's major victory.
Nigel Gardner did not manage to win the Suffolk Coastal constituency from the Conservatives, that have been continuously elected there over the past twenty years. The former spokesman for the European Commission lost with 17,521 votes against 21,847 for Conservative John Gummer, 9,192 for the Liberal Democrat candidate and only 1,847 for the very anti-European candidate of the UK Independence Party.
Nicole Fontaine, European Parliament President, affirmed that Tony Blair's "landslide victory" bears witness to the trust that the United Kingdom puts in him for the "new, resolutely and courageously pro-European project" that he is proposing. It also shows, she says, that the large majority of the population, while remaining legitimately attached to national specificity, has chosen to build its future with closer links with the other countries of the European Union. Ms Fontaine said in her telegram to Mr Blair that she hopes that, "given the strengthened legitimacy conferred by universal suffrage, the United Kingdom may now take the step of joining single currency".
European Council President Göran Persson considered Tony Blair's success 'incredibly important for Europe". At the same time, he expressed his concern about the very poor voter turnout. Britain is now among the countries with a turnout rate below 60%, and "this is not a good signal", he said. He added that "if the Conservatives had won, it would have been a setback if not a disaster".