Blair era to end, Brown's Britain to begin

FE Team | Published: June 28, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Incoming British Prime Minister Gordon Brown addresses the Labour leadership conference.

LONDON, June 27 (AFP): Tony Blair prepared Wednesday to leave office after 10 years as British prime minister, amid growing speculation he could also announce he is standing down as a lawmaker to become an envoy to the Middle East.
The 54-year-old was set to hand over to finance minister Gordon Brown in a long-anticipated transfer of powers overseen by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
Blair is widely expected to be named an international envoy for the Middle East Quartet of the United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union shortly after meeting the queen to hand back his seals of office.
On Wednesday evening he was expected at a local Labour Party meeting in his Sedgefield, north-east England, constituency. "If he gets this job with the Quartet, I would expect him to step down," his agent John Burton told AFP.
But beforehand, after what critics have called "the longest goodbye in history" since announcing his resignation plans on May 10, he was to make his last weekly appearance before lawmakers in the House of Commons at 1100 GMT.
He was then return to number 10 Downing Street, where photographers and television camera crews were gathering since Tuesday to bag the best position, to say farewell to staff.
After that, he was to head to Buckingham Palace for a private audience with the queen, seven weeks after announcing he was to resign.
Brown, who as leader of the majority party in parliament, was to follow soon after to ask the monarch for permission to form a government-the first time Britain has seen a change in leader without a general election for 17 years.
The finance minister, who took over from Blair as Labour leader Sunday, received an early political boost Tuesday when a lawmaker from the main opposition Conservative Party defected to join.
There have also been reports that Labour, deeply in debt, has received a rush of large financial donations.
Blair became prime minister in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative government after Labour won the biggest parliamentary majority for half a century with a strong public mandate for change.
But his popularity ratings dropped considerably, mostly because of his decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and support for the so-called "war on terror".