Sedgefield (UK Parliament constituency) the Member of Parliament was Tony Blair; who led a successful campaign for his party to win the 1997 general election in a landslide and thereafter served for ten years as the Prime Minister, leading the campaigns at two subsequent general elections. Blair was the first Prime Minister to lead the Labour Party to three consecutive victories. He resigned as the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield on the same day as he resigned as Prime Minister, which triggered a by-election. At the by-election on 19 July 2007, the official Labour Party candidate Phil Wilson was elected on a reduced majority
Premiership of Tony Blair Prime Minister for the last time. His successor was widely expected to be Gordon Brown, the-then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who launched his leadership bid on 11 May 2007. The only other politician to formally declare himself a contender for the Labour leadership following Blair's departure was the left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell, who launched his campaign on 14 July 2006. To stand in the leadership contest, candidates required the nominations of 12.5% of sitting Labour MPs—then 44 MPs. On 2 May 2007, on the tenth anniversary of the 1997 general election, Tony Blair announced that he would be stepping