http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=568405Blair: 'I feel liberated.' MPs urge: 'Go quickly'
Strategy backfires with calls for early exit. PM may be forced out 'within two years'
By Andy McSmith and Francis Elliott
03 October 2004
Tony Blair is facing mounting pressure from Labour MPs to depart much sooner than the five-year deadline he set himself last week.
As he emerged from successful hospital treatment for a minor heart condition, the Prime Minister told friends he was feeling "liberated" after a week in which he half apologised for faulty intelligence that sent the UK to war in Iraq, and announced his intention to stand down in five years.
Mr Blair believes he has given himself time to fight for public service reforms and other domestic policies, free from suspicion that he wants to cling to power indefinitely.
But even old cabinet allies were warning that he would have to leave sooner than he would like, to avoid putative successors engaging in a power struggle up until the moment the next but one general election is called.
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