Blair Stepping Down Next Year?

Reuters is carrying a report, based off the newspaper The Sun, that Tony Blair is planning to step down as Prime Minister of Britain on July 26, 2007. The report is not confirmed by Blair's government yet.

The report comes a day after a top Blair ally said the prime minister would probably leave office within a year.

The Sun said Blair would step down as head of the Labor Party on May 31, less than a month after his tenth anniversary in office. He would resign as prime minister eight weeks later, after an election to choose a successor as party leader, expected to be his finance minister, Gordon Brown.

Blair, winner of a record three consecutive elections for Labor, has already said he will not stand for a fourth term.

His popularity has plunged after a series of government scandals over sleaze and mismanagement, as well as controversy over the Iraq war. Opinion polls put Labor well behind the opposition Conservatives — resurgent under their youthful, pro-environment leader David Cameron.

Blair's office declined to comment on the Sun story: "We have no intention of commenting on any speculation of the timetable," a spokeswoman said.

The right-leaning tabloid, Britain's largest-selling daily newspaper, has a reputation for accurate political scoops.

"It's been known to me for some time that the prime minister has had a date in mind, and we've been working hard on it," political editor George Pascoe-Watson told Sky News television.

"We've actually been able to nail down the date that he has put in his diary."

Blair has been a strong ally in the war on terror. I have not particularly cared for some of Britain's internal policies in the past few years, but he has been a steadfast friend to the US and to democracy.