Blair braced for bloody nose at poll

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party was braced last night for heavy losses in the council elections in which more than 6,000 seats were being contested across 166 local authorities in England and Wales.

Mr Blair has faced taunts that he had been dropped from Labour's campaign literature because he had become a liability.

However, Tory leader Michael Howard was also under pressure after opinion polls suggested the Conservatives' hopes of doing well in the European elections could be hit by a surge from the UK Independence Party.