Tony Blair announces resignation

LONDON: Tony Blair ended months of speculation by finally announcing that he would stand down as Prime Minister on June 27. In an emotional speech at his Sedgefield parliamentary constituency in County Durham in North England, Blair acknowledged that his government had not always lived up to expectations and apologised to the British public if he had “fallen short”.

Prior to making the public announcement, Blair had told his Cabinet colleagues about his plans at a 10 Downing Street meeting. The Labour Party will chose his successor - widely expected to be Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown - in a month’s time.

Blair told the 250-odd Labour activists who had gathered in a tiny bar in Trimdon Labour Club in Sedgefield that he had been very lucky to lead “the greatest nation on earth”. He thanked the British people for their support and said he had been prime minister for 10 years which was “long enough” for the country and for himself.

Accepting that expectations of and his government were probably “too high” when he first took office in 1997, Blair insisted that the standard of living had improved under Labour. He also touched on foreign policy — the area that drastically lowered his popularity rating —  and defended his stand on both the ‘war on terror’ and the ‘bitterly controversial’ invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I decided we should stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally, and I did so out of belief,” he said of his decision to back the war in Iraq. He claimed he did it because he thought it was right. “I may have been wrong. That’s your call,” he added, emotionally.

Earlier, the announcement in the Cabinet meeting had been a more jolly affair with ministers describing the atmosphere as “cordial”, “comradely”, with “lots of laughter” and “leg-pulling”.

Likely successor Gordon Brown paid tribute to Blair praising “his unique achievement over 10 years and the unique leadership he had given to the party, Britain and the world”.