One of Tony Blair's closest Cabinet allies has sought to quell the growing rumbling within the Labour ranks about his leadership, brushing aside calls for him to stand down as Prime Minister.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, said Mr Blair was still the right man to lead the country with "lots to do" on health, education and particularly security.
Worryingly for Downing Street, however, there were signs that some normally loyal Labour MPs were prepared to join the calls for him to go.
The big unions, who have re-emerged as Labour's main paymasters, also indicated that they were prepared to start flexing their muscles unless there was a change of direction on issues like NHS privatisation.
Lord Falconer, Mr Blair's old flatmate, insisted the premier would not be swayed by opinion polls putting Labour at its lowest ebb since he became leader, or continuing unrest within the party over his handling of the Lebanon crisis.
"Now, in my view, is not the time to go as Prime Minister. There's lots to do, he is the right man to do it," he told Sky News's Sunday Live programme.
"Tony Blair, who has won three elections for the Labour Party, is the right man to address those issues.
"In terms of addressing the attacks on this country by terrorists, in terms of being a world statesman, I don't think anybody could do the job better than Tony Blair.
"Because we are going down in the polls, is that the moment to change leader? I think not. I think that the right course at the moment is to stick with the Prime Minister that we have got."
He also quashed hopes among some Labour MPs that Mr Blair - who has said he will stand down before the next general election - would use his speech to the party conference in Manchester next month to give some clearer idea of when exactly he intends to go. "I think he will be giving us a clearer idea, as he has been doing year on year, what policies he thinks the Government should be adopting," he said.
