Meacher says Labour needs new vision

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - The Labour Party, battered by heavy loses in local elections, still has the stomach for a leadership battle when Prime Minister Tony Blair stands down, a left-wing contender said on Saturday.

Blair is expected to announce the timetable next week for his departure after a decade in power, triggering a leadership contest that Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to win.

Brown, who has seen potential opponents drop by the wayside in recent weeks, saw his chances boosted once more on Saturday when former Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he would not stand as the party had no appetite for an internal fight.

But former environment minister Michael Meacher, who declared his candidacy in February, rejected Clarke's reasoning.

"I am intending to stand. I don't agree that the party doesn't have the stomach for a fight," he told Reuters after Labour lost seats in elections in England, Wales and Scotland.

"We have had a pretty serious setback. We need a change of direction. If we ... begin to behave like the Labour government that Labour supporters thought they were voting for in 1997, I think the situation is perfectly retrievable," he added.

Blair came to power in 1997 at the head of a reinvigorated Labour Party -- dubbed New Labour -- promising a new start after 18 years of Conservative rule.

But after three consecutive electoral victories, a Labour record, and a decade in power, support is rapidly waning, leaving his successor with a tough task before the next election expected in 2009.