(CNN) - After a drubbing in regional elections, Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched a wide-ranging Cabinet reshuffle, axing embattled Home Secretary Charles Clarke and demoting Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Friday's shake-up follows a string of political setbacks and electoral humiliations that have undermined the prime minister's authority and intensified calls for his resignation, reports Trend.
Clarke, who was recently forced to apologize over a prisoner deportation scandal, was to be replaced by Defense Minister John Reid, a government statement said.
Clarke said it was with "deep regret" that he was leaving the job after just 16 months but the prime minister had told him that keeping him in position would "stand in the way" of reform in the wake of the scandal.
Straw, who will be shunted sideways to become leader of the lower house of Parliament, will be replaced by Environment Minister Margaret Beckett.
Blair's trusted deputy, John Prescott, who caused embarrassment with the recent admission of an extramarital affair, keeps his job, but was stripped of his own department.
In incomplete results released early Friday, Blair's Labour party lost of 251 seats in balloting on Thursday for 176 local government councils, the UK's Press Association said.
In contrast, the main opposition Conservatives, under their new leader David Cameron, were the biggest gainers, netting 249 seats, PA said.
"This is as bad as we've seen the whole time Tony Blair has been party leader," CNN European Political Editor Robin Oakley said.
But he predicted that the poor showing would not result in an immediate exit for Blair, despite the repeated calls for his departure.
"It is not the meltdown some people have predicted, and it doesn't mean Tony Blair will step down tomorrow," he said.
During his campaign for a third term last year, Blair pledged not to stand again as party leader in the next general election. But that election isn't expected until 2009 or 2010, and he has so far refused to be pinned down on a date to step aside.
Thursday's vote marked the first test for Cameron, a telegenic 39-year-old who was picked in December to try to lead his once-dominant Conservative Party out of nearly a decade in the political wilderness.
The local election came amid a nasty row over revelations that more than 1,000 criminals from countries were released from British prisons without being considered for deportation.
Controversy brewing Blair had resisted demands from he sack Clarke, whose department was responsible for the releases.
As that controversy was brewing, Prescott was forced to acknowledge his affair with a woman in his department after photographs of the pair were splashed across tabloid newspapers.
Police are also investigating whether seats in the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament, were doled out to financial backers in return for loans to the Labour Party.
And Blair and his ministers have also had to deal with fallout from controversial health service reforms that recently prompted nurses to publicly boo and heckle Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
Blair, 52, became prime minister in 1997, after leading his party to a landslide victory that ended 18 years of Conservative rule. He was re-elected in 2001 and then again last May, becoming the first Labour leader to secure three terms in office.
However, with his popularity sapped by his support for the invasion of Iraq and close alliance with President Bush, Blair's 2005 victory was somewhat anemic. Labour captured just 35 percent of the vote and lost 47 seats, although it still maintained a parliamentary majority.
Blair's replacement as Labour leader is widely expected to be Treasury chief Gordon Brown, 55.
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