Blair under party's Iraq spotlight
By Robin Oakley
CNN European Political Editor
BRIGHTON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair is once again being dogged by events in Iraq as he faces the last conference of his Labour Party before next spring's expected national elections.
Blair is keen to get the focus back on domestic policies, but opinion polls say Iraq has deeply damaged his credibility with the electorate.
Outside the party conference in Brighton, on the southern English coast, campaigners who reckon Blair isn't doing enough to help developing countries boost their trade did it with music and good humor.
But the protests may not be quite so friendly when those who oppose Blair's policy on Iraq and his government's plan to ban hunting with dogs turn out later in the week.
With a general election expected next year, Britain's prime minister wants to focus on jobs, housing and childcare. But continuing violence in Iraq and the fate of British hostage Kenneth Bigley are overshadowing the Labour Party's conference.
Prime ministers bleed -- and feel -- like anybody else: "Real sympathy for him, anger at how he is being held by these people and an earnest hope that, despite all the difficulties, we can do something. But I just don't know if we are able to or not," Blair said.
He insists there can be no deals with terrorists to save Bigley and says British troops must stay. But many Labour Party activists disagree.
"I think we have to set a date for withdrawal. The January elections (in Iraq) are a natural time," says Labour lawmaker Alan Simpson.
War opponents like Simpson staged a meeting Sunday, including a radio link with Bigley's brother Paul, who has said that if the hostage is killed by his captors then his blood will be on Blair's hands.
And on Monday, Paul Bigley called on Blair to resign.
"Tony Blair is a gentleman and a statesman," Bigley told the BBC. But he added: "I think his sell-by date has gone and he has to go. There has to be a change of face, a change of policy, a change of dialogue."
Kenneth Bigley's fate has intensified the Iraq debate. And whatever happens to him, Labour activists fear that the credibility lost over the missing weapons of mass destruction, which Blair used to justify the war, is deeply wounding their party.
"That's the millstone 'round Labour's neck," Simpson says.
According to one weekend poll 63 percent of Britons reckon Blair is "out of touch with ordinary people."
Analysts report Iraq will potentially cost his party 3 million votes in next year's election.
Getting the focus off Iraq and back onto domestic policy is becoming a matter of urgency for Britain's prime minister. The problem is: How?
