Britain is braced for an undeclared 10-week election campaign following Mr Tony Blair's decision to postpone the English local elections until June 7th.
The Prime Minister made no statement about the timing of the general election yesterday when he finally confirmed that the foot-and-mouth epidemic had forced him to reschedule the local elections in "the national interest".
At the same time Mr Blair gave the clearest signal of his determination to hold the local and general elections on the same day, declaring: "We cannot, should not and will not indefinitely suspend the democratic process."
A further indication of Mr Blair's intent came with confirmation that Northern Ireland's district council elections, scheduled for May 16th, will also now take place on June 7th. It is believed the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, had a prior understanding with Mr Blair to ensure that the North's local contests would be held on the same day as the general election.
However, Mr Blair's assertion that this was "a time to unify and not to divide" fell on deaf ears as the Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, suggested it was impossible to set a fresh date for the elections while it remained unclear when the foot-and-mouth crisis would end.
The Prime Minister reached his long-awaited decision against the weight of majority opinion in the cabinet and with some 70 per cent of the Parliamentary Labour Party in favour of proceeding with the election on May 3rd.
The former Northern Ireland secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, and Mr Blair's focus-group expert, Mr Philip Gould, are understood to have played a significant role in persuading the Prime Minister to allow "a short postponement" in his election plans.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, confirmed that he had been in favour of holding to the May 3rd plan. And one report last night suggested the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, finally backed delay only at the price of a firm commitment that there would be no further postponement beyond June 7th.
Announcing the government's worst-kept secret outside Downing Street, Mr Blair said he wanted to end uncertainty for the sake of the tourist industry and the broader economy. There was a need for politicians to focus on the fight against foot-and-mouth "as we put in place the machinery necessary to deal with any eventuality", and he had to address "the feelings and sensitivities of the people in the communities most affected" by the disease.
Even in those areas, said Mr Blair, there was "no practical impediment" to free and fair elections: "We are satisfied that the elections could go ahead. The question is whether they should."
It was true that foot-and-mouth affected only a small minority of the country directly, and was particularly concentrated in certain areas.
"Even within the agricultural community it is a very small percentage of livestock farms that are directly affected," said Mr Blair. Identifying his priority as "to complete the putting in place of the short-, medium- and long-term strategies to ensure the eventual eradication of the disease", Mr Blair declared: "Whilst this is going on, I believe it would not be appropriate to hold these elections on May 3rd."
Answering Mr Hague directly, however, Mr Blair added: "A short postponement, for the reasons I have given, is one thing; an indefinite delay is quite another. Any period of uncertainty is bad for tourism, sending out the wrong message, because Britain is indeed open for business . . . To put our democratic process on hold for a prolonged period of time would simply not be right."