British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair has decided to put off calling a general election that had been pencilled in for May 3rd because of Britain's foot-and-mouth crisis, political sources said today.
The sources said after a weekend of agonising over the issue at his official country estate, Mr Blair decided to gamble that his Labour party's big lead in opinion polls would stand up better if he did not go to the electorate at a time of national crisis.
The six-week-old foot-and-mouth epidemic has already led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of sheep and pigs, turned large areas of the British countryside into quarantined no-go areas, led to export bans, cost millions of dollars in lost tourism and spread to Ireland, France and the Netherlands.
There have been 875 cases reported, including nearly 50 in the last 24 hours. The military were called in to help fight it.
Political sources said the trigger for putting off the general election would be postponing local elections, already set by legislation for May 3rd. The announcement that the local elections were to be postponed is expected tomorrow.
"My judgment is he will not call the general election tonight, or tomorrow, or in the coming week either," one political source said. Mr Blair would have to act this week if he were to call a general election for May 3rd.