Via the BBC: Labour peer urges Blair to quit

Former Labour deputy leader Lord Hattersley has called on Tony Blair to quit as prime minister in September.

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“The prime minister ought not to announce he’s going at party conference - he ought to go at party conference,” the Labour peer told GMTV’s Sunday Programme.

He said Mr Blair should point to Labour’s achievements since coming to power in 1997, pass the leadership baton to his successor and “thank the party for what they’ve done”.

“If we did that I think he’d go out on a high note in the party, I think that’ll ripple out through the country.

“The longer he stays on the more damaging it is for him as well as the party in my view.”

He also said that if Mr Blair stayed until 2024, it would be “impossible to put new life” into the party.

Of course, this is just part of a building momentum. From last month: Blair to quit ‘well before’ poll.

Such a move is not unusual (i.e., for a British PM to step down before the expiration of a term). It certainly beats hanging on until an election is lost, and gives the party the chance to have an ordered transition.

Blair has been been PM sine May of 1997 and is the longest serving Labour PM.