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Blair era to end, Brown's Britain to begin
AFP/John D McHugh
Tony Blair will stand down as prime minister on Wednesday after a decade in office
By Phil Hazlewood
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 06 27 07Tony 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 on 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".
In an interview with The Sun newspaper published Wednesday, US President George W. Bush rejected the allegation that Blair was his uncritical "poodle".
"He's bigger than that. This is just background noise, a distraction from big things.
This kind of thing is just silly ridicule and that's how I treat it," he said.
Blair has won praise at home for social reforms like gay rights and introducing the minimum wage and abroad for leading efforts to tackle climate change and increase aid and assistance to Africa.
Mounting pressure within the Labour ranks and increasingly public infighting with Brown eventually forced Blair to promise last year he would step down before September this year. He finally named the date on May 10.
Serious-minded Brown, 56, stewarded Britain through record economic expansion but his less relaxed style is a marked contrast to Blair's eloquent and easy, media-friendly persona.
Both men entered parliament in 1983, once shared an office and were the chief architects behind the restyling of Labour, but their friendship soured as Brown believed Blair had reneged on a deal to hand over power sooner.
He has promised to stay true to Blair's progressive centre-left agenda but introduce a more open form of government with parliament at the centre.
Brown was expected to announce his senior ministers Wednesday or Thursday.
AFP 27 0752 GMT 06 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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