PM: Call for discipline

Tony Blair has told his Labour critics that a fourth election victory is possible if the party remains united.

Addressing a meeting of his MPs in Westminster on Wednesday, the prime minister also said he should be given space to arrange an orderly handover of power when he decides to leave office.

The comments come after a week of sniping from backbench critics, many of whom have called on him to stand down.

The prime minister was given a rousing standing ovation after addressing the MPs at Westminster in a meeting that lasted about 80 minutes.

Of the 23 people who spoke, five or six were said to have been critical but were shouted down by the vast majority of their fellow MPs.

And after the meeting, supporters of the prime minister said he had made short shrift of any doubts about his leadership.

One minister emerged to say: "The whingers were routed."

And defence secretary John Reid said: "It was a great meeting. The silent majority are silent no longer.

"They made their view known and you saw it in a standing ovation just now.

"We have waited a while for the silent majority to speak but they have now spoken."

Centre left

Blair told the party it must continue to govern from the centre left of British politics.

"We won from a centre left position and I'm absolutely convinced we have got to stay there," he told the meeting.

"The most important thing for us is to build out from the centre rather than lurch this way or that. We can build out from this to a fourth-term victory.

"By staying in the centre ground we can force the Liberal Democrats and the Tories to chose.

"The Tories have to decide, do they go to the centre or the Thatcherite position."

The prime minister said the party's job was "to implement the manifesto" but warned that "it's only going to be carried through if we are united as a political party".

"Our fourth victory will be under different leadership, but we have to remain united until then," he said.

"The fourth term is there for us - entrenching progressive politics every bit as powerful as the Tories were in the first 100 years of the Labour Party."

Protests

As MPs streamed out of the crowded committee room, first signs were that loyalists had rallied round Blair to drown out any protests.

Ken Purchase told reporters: "On the back of the third Labour victory, people feel pretty supportive towards him [Blair] and I think there's a genuine majority of people who will continue to support him.

"Everyone who appeared to say Tony Blair was less than perfect got shouted down."

But he made his own view plain, adding: "I would like to see an early but orderly progression to a new leadership."