Tony Blair prepared on Wednesday to hand the British premiership to Gordon Brown after 10 years in office, as speculation grew he was to become a Middle East envoy.
The formal handover was scheduled to take place at Queen Elizabeth II’s official London residence at Buckingham Palace after Blair makes his last appearance as prime minister in the lower House of Commons.
But Blair’s departure was already under way with belongings being loaded into a vast removal van in his Downing Street office, while onlookers and anti-Iraq war protesters mingled with journalists.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern fuelled rumours an announcement was imminent on Blair’s appointment as envoy to the Middle East Quartet of the United Nations, Russia, the European Union and the United States.
”I spoke to him about this on Friday night when he told me that he was going to take it … He thinks, and I believe he is right, that if you have hands-on, persistent engagement you can make real progress,” he told RTE state radio.
The Middle East envoy announcement could be made either before or when Blair attends a meeting of local members of the governing Labour Party 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 Agence France-Presse.
But beforehand, after what critics have called ”the longest goodbye in history” since announcing his resignation plans on May 10, he was to face lawmakers for the last time in Parliament.
He was then return to number 10 Downing Street, where crowds of photographers and television camera crews have gathered since Tuesday to bag the best position, to say farewell to staff.
After that, he was to head to the palace to formally hand in his seals of office during a private audience with the queen, seven weeks after announcing he was to resign.
Brown, who was 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 on Tuesday when a lawmaker from the main opposition Conservative Party defected to join.
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 United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and support for the so-called ”war on terror”.
In an interview with the Sun newspaper published on Wednesday, US President George Bush rejected the allegation that Blair was his uncritical ”poodle”, dismissing it as ”just silly ridicule”.
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
