Blair has lost his sense: Ex-minister

London: A former Cabinet member says Prime Minister Tony Blair has lost his sense of purpose and direction, and may not recover from the damage of recent events.

Charles Clarke, once a close ally of Blair who was fired from his post of home secretary in May, criticized the Prime Minister in a series of interviews published on Tuesday and also lashed out at his successor.

An open feud within the governing Labour Party is unwelcome news for Blair, whose party has fallen behind the Opposition Conservatives in opinion polls.

In a commentary published in The Guardian, the Prime Minister repeatedly called for an end to ''coded references and implied critiques'' by critics within his party.

Clarke said he hoped Blair, who has said he will leave office before the next national election, would remain in office until 2008, but expressed doubts whether that would be best for the Labour Party.

''We are rather becalmed and need a sense of leadership which we do not have,'' Clarke said in an interview with The Guardian.

''The solution at the moment is for Tony Blair to stay on until 2008, so he can recapture his sense of direction, leadership and purpose to complete the manifesto on which we were elected in 2005.''

''Whether he is able to do that, because he has been damaged by recent events -whether he wants to do that - is not a matter for me. There are a lot of doubts about it and I share some of those,'' Clarke added.

Clarke was dismissed following revelations that the Home Office had failed to consider deportation for more than a thousand foreign citizens who had been jailed for crimes.

John Reid, who succeeded Clarke as home secretary, has described the Home Office as ''not fit for purpose'' - a description which stung Clarke.

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''Making remarks such as 'not fit for purpose' or 'I am the enforcer' are the wrong approach to deal with it,'' Clarke said of Reid. ''They have not made it easier for him to carry through reforms. It's his responsibility, not mine, but I mind if my stewardship is blamed.''

Acknowledging policy differences within the party, Blair said ''let us debate them openly and candidly.''

''That's my point. The time for coded references and implied critiques is gone,'' he said in the commentary published in The Guardian.

Clarke's ouster came a day after Labour finished in third place in local council elections in England.

Clarke, who was appointed home secretary in December 2004, said he had begun a process of reform, which would have taken several years to complete.

''I think Blair should have stayed with me in this post and I certainly think he should have retained his commitment to the reform process,'' Clarke said in an interview with The Times.

David Davis, a senior Conservative lawmaker, compared Clarke's blast to the resignation speech by former Cabinet member Geoffrey Howe, which precipitated Margaret Thatcher's downfall in 1990.

''It is a Blairite equivalent, a media-based equivalent, of what Geoffrey Howe did to Margaret Thatcher all those years ago,'' Davis said. ''It will be very interesting to see whether the public at large believe his message.''