Thursday's elections to councils in England, the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly were the last chance for 39 million voters to give their verdict on Blair's decade in power.
Blair's popularity has slumped due to the Iraq war and a series of political scandals, and he is expected to announce next week he will leave office by July. Finance minister Gordon Brown, a 56-year-old Scot, is almost certain to succeed him.
With results likely to dribble in throughout Friday it was too early to call the Scottish parliament vote but there were clear signs of a swing to the Scottish National Party (SNP).
With 74 of the 129 seats decided the SNP gained 12 and Labour lost seven. Opinion polls had suggested the SNP, which wants independence from Britain, could oust Labour as the biggest party in the parliament.
Labour had braced itself for a drubbing in the council elections in England and its share of the vote was projected at 27 percent.
Local polls are not always a reliable indicator for parliamentary elections, however. Blair's government slumped to a record low of 26 percent in 2004 but still won a parliamentary election the following year.
The opposition Conservatives took comfort from a BBC projection that showed its share of the national vote had risen to 41 percent, above a 40-percent threshold deemed necessary to win a parliamentary election. - DDNews India
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