Blair resigns, Liberal Democrats call for a General Election

4.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 10th May 2007

Tony Blair has announced that he will resign as Prime Minister on June 27th. He will remain prime minister until the Labour Party elects a new leader. He made the announcement in a speech to party activists in his Sedgefield constituency, after earlier briefing the Cabinet on his plans. Sir Ming Campbell said "Tony Blair has been the first Labour Prime Minister to win three consecutive general elections and he will be rightly remembered for this. Yet overall his period in office can only be characterised as a decade of missed opportunities in which the hopes of the British people for a new kind of politics were shattered."

Following the resignation of the Prime Minister the Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion calling for an immediate general election, arguing that the British people should choose the next Prime Minister. The motion comes as a BBC Newsnight poll suggests that most voters back a quick general election, including over half of those who said they voted Labour.

Sir Ming Campbell said "Before the last General Election Tony Blair pledged to serve a full third term and the British electorate voted for him on this basis. Now the Prime Minister is leaving it is only right that the British public have their say on who will be their next Prime Minister."