01/05/2007

Blair - 'Brown to be PM within weeks'

Tony Blair has said that Chancellor Gordon Brown will, "in all probability", succeed him as Prime Minister in the next few weeks.

Speaking to GMTV earlier in an interview to mark his tenth anniversary in Downing Street, Mr Blair commented on his resignation as prime minister saying: "I will make my position clear next week. I will say something definitive then."

However, speaking to an election rally later on Tuesday, Mr Blair said: "In all probability, a Scot will become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, someone who has built our economy into one of the strongest in the world and who, as I have said many times before, would make a great prime minister for Britain."

Speculation is rife that an announcement may be made on Wednesday or Thursday, following the planned resumption of a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland.

The announcement comes as a poll in 'The Independent' newspaper revealed that 69% of people believe that Mr Blair will be most remembered for the Iraq war. The poll also found that 61% of respondents thought he had been a good prime minister, compared to 36% who thought he did not.

(KMcA/SP)

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