Blair may hand over to Brown next summer

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s advisers are working on a time table that will see him hand over power to Chancellor Gordon Brown n...

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s advisers are working on a time table that will see him hand over power to Chancellor Gordon Brown next summer, a media report claimed on Sunday.

Senior ministers expect Blair to step down a few months after he completes 10 years in office, in May 2007. Such a move would provide Brown with at least 18 months in power ahead of an expected general election in 2009, according to The Sunday Telegraph. However, it would mean Blair reneging on a promise to voters made before the last elections to serve a “full term.”

Blair faces many pitfalls between now and then, however, notably over the battle to get his controversial package of school reforms into law in the face of Opposition from rebel Labour MPs.

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According to the report, in May, the Labour Party is expected to take a political battering in the local elections, which could call for his early departure.

Sources close to Brown accepted that a time table of 18 months was possible, although they scotched claims of a new “deal” between the two leaders. hose closest to Blair say a departure date in the late summer of 2007 will allow him to claim a significant legacy of reform as long as his Schools Bill passes successfully into law.

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