Britain: Embattled home secretary Charles Clarke may be a casualty in a cabinet reshuffle Tony Blair could begin as early as today in the aftermath of Labour's predicted heavy losses in the English local elections.
As counting continued through the night in the battle for some 4,300 seats on district councils, metropolitan authorities and the London boroughs, senior Whitehall sources said Mr Blair would make no final decision about the timing of the reshuffle until the results were in across the country.
However, close allies were urging the prime minister to avoid a weekend of uncertainty in favour of a speedy attempt to reassert his authority and control, and his government's credibility, particularly following the foreign prisoner release fiasco which continued unabated last night.
The Conservatives as well as Labour were playing down their expectations ahead of the formal declarations which were widely forecast to affect the duration of Mr Blair's tenure in Downing Street. They will also reveal what progress, if any, new Tory leader David Cameron has made in re-establishing his party as a credible alternative government.
Sources close to Mr Blair were actually predicting net Labour losses of up to 400 seats, while suggesting this would not be "a disaster".
Last month experts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of the LGC Elections Centre at the University of Plymouth warned the party to expect losses to the tune of 100 seats or more.
Yesterday's spin on the likely final outcome reflected private Labour polling confirming that the Blair government has been badly hit by the prisoners controversy and by deputy prime minister John Prescott's admission of an affair with a former diary secretary.
Although Mr Prescott has retreated from public view in the past week, Mr Blair has apparently had no signal that he wishes to stand down, and informed sources say the prime minister is unlikely to ask him to do so.
However, Mr Clarke was back in the danger zone as it emerged that a foreign criminal awaiting trial on terrorism charges had been jailed previously in the UK and was not deported upon his release.
Mr Clarke's Conservative "shadow" David Davis said: "If true, this is as bad as it could be. It would amount to an unforgivable failure to protect the public against the most serious threat to their safety."