BLAIR: DON'T TRY TO FORCE ME OUT; PM's party unity plea to MPs.

Byline: By Pippa Crerar

TONY Blair hit back yesterday at the rebellious MPs who are demanding that he quits. And he warned they were putting a fourth election victory at risk.

The PM demanded space to carry out a 'stable and orderly' transition of power at a stormy 80minute meeting with Labour MPs.

Several say he indicated towards Chancellor Gordon Brown as he spoke of the leadership succession.

He said: 'I have given people the certainty that at the next election there will be a different leadership.

'I understand the need for a stable and orderly transition to that leadership. But people should give me the space to ensure that happens.'

Blair, in his first meeting with MPs since the election, told them: 'Our job is to implement the manifesto but it's only going to be carried through if we are united as a party.

'Our fourth victory will be under different leadership but we have to remain united until then.

'If we act like this wasa defeat, not a victory, we will not get a different kind of Labour Party but the Tories.

'Even through three election defeats I was loyal, I don't think it's too much to ask for loyalty in the face of three victories.'

However,to the anger of his critics, he said nothing about listening more to MPs and the public.

And he riled many on the left still further when he told them: 'We won from a centre-left position and I'm convinced we have to stay there.

'The most important thing for us is to build out from the centre rather than lurch this way or that.'

Loyalist backbenchers hissed and booed the rebels and gave Blair a standing ovation.

Anti-war MP Bob Marshall-Andrews was howled down as he told Blair: 'The party was losing seats not because we had bad policies but because the Prime Minister is deeply unpopular.

'The Prime Minister does not believe he is unpopular. He does not believe it is anything to do with him. He is in denial.'

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock said: 'They were much nicer to me when I lost than they have been to Tony when he wins. The world is upside down