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Britons against Blair, Miliband getting top EU jobs

London – Most Britons are opposed to ex-prime minister Tony Blair or Foreign Secretary David Miliband taking any of the top new EU jobs created by the Lisbon Treaty, an opinion poll out Sunday said.

Some 53 percent of voters did not want Blair to become EU president compared to 36 percent who did. A total of 48 percent did not back Miliband for the EU’s top foreign policy job, compared to 29 percent supporting him.

The Sunday Telegraph/ICM poll surveyed 1,007 adults by telephone on October 28 and 29.

The two new posts are being created under the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which only the Czech Republic still has to ratify and is expected to do so soon.

Following negotiations at an EU summit Thursday and Friday, it now seems unlikely Blair will get the top job, although Miliband is still thought to be in the running for the foreign affairs post.

Miliband, however, insists he is not a candidate for the role.

A YouGov survey for The Daily Telegraph on Friday found just 31 percent of people wanted to see Blair — who led Britain from 1997 to 2007 and took the country into the Iraq war — take on the new job of president of the European Council.

AFP/Expatica