Reaction as the results unfold

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party won a third consecutive term in power but with 533 of the 646 seats declared by 3.28 NZT on Friday, his majority was seen cut to 76 seats and his future in question.

An exit poll as voting ended on Thursday night had indicated a Labour majority of 66 seats, down from 161 last time.

The following are some reactions from analysts.

MARK WICKHAM-JONES, SENIOR LECTURER IN POLITICS AT BRISTOL UNIVERSITY:

"It is pretty bad news for Labour and particularly bad news for Blair. Blair is very damaged by Iraq. It really is a question of bottle for (Gordon) Brown. My reading is that after this election he will move -- sooner rather than later.

"It is absolutely on a knife edge. If the majority goes below 60 I can't see Blair as prime minister at Christmas. If it is above 70, maybe he is. If it is between the two I don't know.

PROFESSOR ANTHONY KING, ESSEX UNIVERSITY

"Clearly this is a very unpopular government. It has done very badly."

DOMINIC WRING, POLITICS LECTURER, LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY:

"He has probably suffered a greater loss of support than he anticipated. There's clearly going to be speculation about his leadership. That will be detrimental to the unity of the government."

"In the past, Blair has worked from a position of strength. Now he's working from a position where he's particularly weakened. Over the issue of Iraq, a lot of Labour voters are clearly going to the Liberal Democrats in safe seats."

JAMES MALCOLM, CURRENCY STRATEGIST AT DEUTSCHE BANK IN SINGAPORE:

"The expectations were that the majority would be reduced and it was a question of what the majority would be reduced by.

"We're seeing euro/sterling slightly lower. Maybe you could attribute that on the margin that it is a slight relief rally for sterling in terms of policy continuation -- people getting what they are used to."

ERIC SHAW, DOCTOR OF POLITICS AT STIRLING UNIVERSITY:

"As soon as the election is over the struggle begins for the future of the Labour party. There is not going to be any pause. Things are going to have to be resolved fairly quickly.

"I think there is a disconnection between the Labour party and New Labour. Younger working class people are just dropping out of the political system. They just don't see that it has got anything to do with them.

KEVIN THEAKSTON, POLITICS PROFESSOR, LEEDS UNIVERSITY:

"This will be interpreted as a massive loss of momentum behind Blair. This will be seen as placing a question mark above his head. It will make it more likely that he will go in a year or the next 18 months.

"With a majority like this it will be much harder to push through a radical programme in parliament. This will hit him ... Power will start visibly seeping through the walls to Number 11 Downing Street to the Chancellor."

- REUTERS