27/06/2007

Blair resigns as Prime Minister

Tony Blair has stepped down today as Prime Minister of Britain after 10 years.

MPs gave Mr Blair a standing ovation after his last session of Prime Minister's Questions today.

Mr Blair, his wife Cherie, and children posed for photographs, but declined to speak to reporters other than a comment from Cherie that they would not miss the press.

The Queen has accepted Mr Blair's resignation and Gordon Brown has been asked to form a government.

It has been confirmed that Mr Blair will serve as Middle East envoy on behalf of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU.

Mr Blair is expected to attend a meeting at his constituency in Sedgefield later today. He has served as an MP for 24 years, but it is thought that he will resign to take up his new role.

In his final Prime Minister's questions session Mr Blair said the Middle East required a "huge intensity of focus and work."

Earlier Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said Mr Blair had accepted and said that on Friday night when he had spoken to him he was going to take the role.

Today Mr Blair told MPs: "The absolute priority is to try to give effect to what is now the consensus across the international community; that the only way of bringing stability and peace to the Middle East is a two-state solution."

(SP/JM)

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