TONY BLAIR'S backbench critics were shouted down yesterday when he pledged to arrange an orderly hand-over of power at Number 10.

The Prime Minister faced down his detractors at a packed meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party in his first big test since the General Election gave him a sharply reduced majority.

There have been high-profile calls, including some from former ministers, for him to go now.

But at yesterday's meeting, only a handful of MPs - dubbed the "usual suspects" - used the first post-election meeting of the parliamentary party to demand his resignation sooner rather than later.

Instead, most of Mr Blair's troops gave him the traditional desk-banging ovation. One minister emerged from the packed meeting with the verdict: "Whingers routed."

The Prime Minister was said to have acknowledged the need to ensure an orderly transition of power - almost certainly to Gordon Brown - having said he would not fight the next election, but he did not set a timetable.

He told Labour MPs that a fourth term in power was within their grasp if they remained united around his centre-left agenda.

And Mr Blair claimed New Labour could dominate the political landscape for 100 years.

In an account of his address given by party sources, Mr Blair told the MPs and peers: "We won from a centre-left position and I'm absolutely convinced we have got to stay there.

"The most important thing for us is to build out from the centre rather than to lurch this way or that, and we can build out from this to a fourth-term victory.

"Our job is to implement the manifesto, but it's only going to be carried through if we are united as a political party.

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

Outspoken rebel Bob Marshall-Andrews, who has blamed Mr Blair for Labour's majority being slashed from 161 to 66, renewed his call for the Prime Minister to resign.

He said: "If he does not go, a lot of our colleagues in local government will not survive. It has got to be dealt with now."

But Ministers were overjoyed at Mr Blair's performance.

Defence Secretary John Reid said: "It was a great meeting. The silent majority are silent no longer."

Durham North MP Kevan Jones said there was widespread irritation at those who had written newspaper articles and spoken out criticising the Prime Minister after the election.

But Hampstead and Highgate MP Glenda Jackson said she had told the Prime Minister "he had opened the Pandora's Box about his stepping down" and added: "He has to give us a timetable."

Party sources said that, of the 23 people who had spoken at the closed meeting, five or six were hostile to the Prime Minister.

After a flood of bets over the weekend that Mr Blair would be forced to stand down this year, bookmaker William Hill last night reported that the money had dried up.

The Prime Minister is offered at odds of 2/1 to step down this year; 5/4 to leave next year; 5/1 for 2007, 11/2 for 2008, 12/1 for 2009 and 20/1 to go in 2010 or beyond.

* Richmond MP William Hague, who reportedly had talks with Michael Howard this week, used a radio interview yesterday to rule himself out as a candidate for the Tory leadership.

Speculation grew after William Hill took bets on a Hague succession totalling £85,000 in an hour - and cut his odds from 16/1 to 5/2.

But Mr Hague said: "I certainly will not be standing for the leadership, however many people ask me to do so."

* Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh was handed a high-profile foreign affairs post last night when Tory leader Michael Howard completed his post-election reshuffle.

Ms McIntosh was shifted from her position as an environment spokeswoman to work under likely leadership contender Liam Fox, the new Shadow Foreign Secretary.