MANCHESTER (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters marched on Saturday against Prime Minister Tony Blair on the eve of a rally of his Labour Party where a struggle over the leadership looked set to steal the headlines. Activists shouting “Blair must go!” and chanting opposition to the Iraq war and to nuclear weapons streamed through the centre of the Manchester, which will host Labour’s annual conference from Sunday until Thursday.
It will be Blair’s final conference as party leader after nine years in office and three successive election victories.
Blair’s backing for the U.S.-led war on Iraq, his policies in the Middle East and his reforms of public services have angered many in Labour, leading to a slide in his popularity.
He was forced earlier this month to say he would resign within a year as rows over the succession exploded into public.
“The message we are trying to get across to the Labour Party is that it really is time for Blair to go,” British Muslim Initiative spokeswoman Yasmin Ataullah, 32, said at the protest, organised by the “Stop the War” coalition.
“It’s not just foreign policies, it’s a question of many failures of domestic policy,” Ataullah told Reuters. Blair’s sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, fronted one of the anti-war demonstrations, saying it was a “massive embarrassment” to be related to the prime minister and urging him to resign.
**Police estimated the number of protesters at around 20,000 and said there had been no arrests by mid-afternoon. Organisers said tens of thousands more had taken to the streets. **
**SUCCESSION TALK **
**Blair will face criticism of policy from delegates at the party conference, though the prospect of a resurgent Conservative Party may prompt many to put on a united front, at least for the cameras. Behind the scenes, though, there will be lively discussion of Blair’s departure and successor, Labour parliamentarians said. **
**Chancellor Gordon Brown has been waiting for years to succeed Blair but some in Labour fear the dour Scot lacks the charisma to win elections and they want an alternative. **
**Blair loyalist John Hutton called on Saturday for a real contest between Brown and another heavyweight figure. **
**“We don’t do coronations in the Labour Party,” Work and Pensions Secretary Hutton told The Times. “We have elections to choose our leader.” **
**Brown ally Ed Balls, widely thought to be a future finance minister if Brown becomes leader, gave a flavour of a Brown premiership, saying he would be a tough negotiator in Europe. “What we will see is Brown the tough negotiator who will stand up for Britain’s interests, who’s willing to say ‘No’ when ‘No’ is the right thing to say,” Balls told BBC Radio. **](http://javascript:ArticlePaging(‘/news/articlenews.aspx’,‘topNews’,‘2006-09-23T163822Z_01_HOL240549_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-BLAIR.xml’,‘1’,‘’,‘’,‘NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage1’)
Balls suggested Brown would want to devolve more power in the public services. Brown is considering handing day-to-day control of the National Health Service to an independent board should he become prime minister, the BBC reported on Saturday.
I am proud of the Booth family (in-laws of Tony Blair) for publically distancing themselves from him.