The Guardian is reporting that Tony Blair will announce today that he is stepping down as Labour party leader and will be vacating 10 Downing Street in July.
Tony Blair will today return to Durham’s Trimdon Labour Club, and the room where he launched his Labour leadership campaign on June 11 1994, to announce that he is standing down as party leader, before finally endorsing Gordon Brown as his successor tomorrow.
He will inform the cabinet this morning before flying to his Sedgefield constituency to announce his decision at noon amid the party workers who first selected him as their parliamentary candidate on May 20 1983 at the age of 30. He is expected to make a personal speech that will insist he is a product of Labour and that his government has left Britain stronger than he found it.
Mr Blair will not quit as prime minister until the beginning of July, giving the party seven weeks to conduct its contests for leader and deputy leader. He will spend the intervening period seeking international deals on climate change, a new slimmed-down treaty for the European Union and extra cash for Africa.
