LABOR PUTS MAJOR IN MINORITY : BLAIR NEW PRIME MINISTER AS BRITISH VOTERS OUST CONSERVATIVES.

Byline: Maureen Johnson Associated Press 

The Labor Party stormed to a landslide election victory today, ending a generation of Conservative rule and making 43-year-old Tony Blair the youngest prime minister in 185 years.

As the vote count continued, Labor clinched a majority in the House of Commons early today by gaining 342 seats. It needed at least 330 seats in the 659-member House to take power.

The Conservatives had won 57 seats and the Liberal Democrats 24.

``You have put your trust in me, and I intend to repay that trust. I will not let you down,'' Blair said after winning re-election in his northern district of Sedgefield.

Prime Minister John Major, who easily won re-election in his own district, acknowledged his party's loss, saying, ``Tonight we have been comprehensively defeated.''

In power since Margaret Thatcher ousted the last Labor government in 1979, the Tories were battered by divisions over Britain's future role in Europe and a widespread sense that they simply had been around too long.

Blair and his party fought a disciplined, slick, six-week campaign from the political center after dumping a raft of socialist strategies and adopting the Conservatives' pro-business and low-tax policies.

Blair thanked his supporters at a hall in Sedgefield, where results were announced early today.

``We are a great country,'' he said. ``The British people are a great people. There is no greater honor than to serve, and serve them we will.''

The British Broadcasting Corp. projected that Labor would have 187 seats more than the combined opposition in the House of Commons, beating the 146-seat majority Labor won in beating Winston Churchill in the 1945 election.

Labor had long been predicted the winner, and exit polls late Thursday bore that out. The BBC projected that Labor would take 47 percent of the vote, compared to 29 percent for the Conservatives - their poorest showing since 1832.

Major said he had telephoned his congratulations to Blair.

``He inherits a country in extremely good economic shape,'' Major said. ``I wish him great success in sustaining that.''

No party has ever won five straight British elections, and the Conservatives didn't come close.

Defense Secretary Michael Portillo, a leading candidate to succeed Major as Conservative leader, instead lost his seat.

``One thing I won't miss, and that is all the questions about the leadership (race),'' Portillo said.

The Conservatives had been hurt by internal squabbling, he said, adding, ``I think what the party needs to reflect upon is that it has done itself no good by showing its divisions.''

Other prominent Tory losers included Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, Trade Secretary Ian Lang, Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth, former Treasury chief Norman Lamont and former Heritage Secretary David Mellor. Labor also won Thatcher's old seat in Finchley, north London.

``A tidal wave has burst over the Conservative Party tonight,'' Mellor said.

Former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell, running as an independent, swamped Tory lawmaker Neil Hamilton, who was accused of accepting undeclared cash to represent private interests in the House of Commons.

A Labor gathering at London's Royal Festival Hall rapidly turned into a victory party that was punctuated by loud cheers as results flashed onto giant TV screens, turning swaths of the map Labor red. Soon after midnight, the champagne began to flow.

``The whole country sees it as a start of a new era,'' said Richard Branson, who rejoiced with activists and praised Labor leader Blair as ``a man with a heart.''

On Thursday, police searched Britain's 45,000 polling stations following bomb hoaxes and small explosions by the Irish Republican Army during the campaign. Armed officers stood by as Blair voted near his home in Trimdon, 235 miles northeast of London.

In Northern Ireland, which will have 18 seats in the Commons, a series of bomb threats - believed to come from pro-British paramilitaries - closed roads and disrupted traffic in Belfast.

Across Britain, voters turned out steadily in brilliant sunshine, and officials predicted a traditionally heavy turnout. In 1992, the turnout was 78 percent.

Nearly 44 million people were eligible to vote, and more than 3,700 candidates ran.

With most official results due early today, Major, 54, could be out of his official Downing Street residence by the end of the day.

Blair becomes the youngest prime minister since the 42-year-old Lord Liverpool in 1812. He and his wife, Cherie, a lawyer, have three children.

The new Parliament convenes Wednesday, and the government will lay out its program a week later in a speech read by Queen Elizabeth II.

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PHOTO British Prime Minister-elect Tony Blair with his wife, Cherie, and children Ewan, left, Nicky and Kathryn.

Associated Press