Premiership of Tony Blair down as Prime Minister in a matter of weeks. He further encouraged Gordon Brown as his successor as Leader of the Labour Party. On 3 May, it was further clarified by Downing Street that the exact date of resignation would be announced on 10 May. The following election of a new leader of the Labour Party was expected to take 48 days. On 10 May 2007, Blair held a Cabinet meeting where he told his ministers about his resignation plans and later making a speech at the Trimdon Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency before announcing at a press conference
Woodspring (UK Parliament constituency) who had held the old seat of Somerset North since 1964. Sir Paul was a Deputy Speaker of the House to George Thomas and latterly Bernard Weatherill from 1982 to 1992; he served longer than anyone else since the post was created in 1902. On his retirement in 1992 Liam Fox succeeded him, and held the seat until its abolition in 2010; during this time he served as a junior minister in the Major government, and later became an opposition frontbencher during the Blair and Brown governments. Woodspring (UK Parliament constituency) Woodspring was, from 1983 until 2010, a constituency represented