BRITAIN:British prime minister Tony Blair will finally confirm his resignation timetable today, triggering a Labour leadership contest which heir-apparent Gordon Brown hopes will renew the party's mission for a fourth term in power.
Mr Blair is expected to confirm his intentions at this morning's regular cabinet meeting in 10 Downing Street before travelling to his Sedgefield constituency to make his long-awaited public announcement.
With the ending of the Blair era Britain's government enters an unprecedented transitional phase, with Mr Brown not becoming prime minister until the end of June or beginning of July even if unopposed for the Labour leadership.
Conservative leader David Cameron yesterday accused Mr Blair of presiding over "a government of the living dead", as he listed a succession of ministers expected to stand down or face the axe when a new prime minister finally takes charge.
However, Mr Blair warned Mr Cameron against getting "cocky" and warned that Labour would eventually win through on "policy", amid some nervousness in Conservative ranks that the forthcoming leadership contest might in fact liberate Mr Brown and enable Labour to again start setting the news agenda.
Labour's national executive committee is expected to meet within 48 hours of today's announcement to confirm the detailed timetable for the contest to elect both Mr Blair's successor and that of current deputy leader John Prescott. The process is predicted to last some seven weeks, with Mr Brown expected on the hustings even if unopposed, while six or more candidates battle for the deputy leadership.
With speculation already building about the likely composition of a Brown cabinet, there is no guarantee the new deputy leader will be appointed deputy prime minister - a position entirely at the discretion of the prime minister and which one candidate, Jon Cruddas, has said he would not want.
Education secretary Alan Johnson is considered the front-runner in the deputy leadership race, ahead of fellow cabinet ministers Peter Hain, Hilary Benn, Harriet Harman and Hazel Blears.
With more than half the Labour parliamentary party expected to nominate Mr Brown, Labour left-wingers Michael Meacher and John McDonnell are expected to agree later today which of them either has, or will attempt to muster, the 44 signatures necessary to mount a challenge.
Given that he cannot take over immediately in Number 10, the belief is that Mr Brown would at least welcome a "token" challenge.
However, while that would give him an opportunity to define himself as a "moderniser" against the left, it would be unlikely to ease pressure on Mr Brown to signal ways in which he would also represent a change from the Blair years.
In yesterday's boisterous exchanges in the Commons, Mr Cameron taunted the departing Mr Blair: "We've got a home secretary [ John Reid] splitting his department but he's already resigned. We've got a foreign secretary [ Margaret Beckett] negotiating a European treaty that she won't be around to ratify. And we've got a prime minister who, even after last week's [ election] drubbing, simply doesn't understand that it's over."