The Browns Move In at Downing Street

Blair Closes His Decade of British Leadership to Rare Ovation in Parliament

LONDON, June 27 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair resigned Wednesday at Buckingham Palace, turning over power to Gordon Brown, his longtime political partner and rival, after a decade of guiding Britain through economic prosperity at home and a deeply unpopular war abroad.

Noticeably older and grayer than when he took office in 1997, Blair, 54, had just come from his final appearance at the House of Commons, where he received a rare standing ovation.

He spent much of his last address there defending the war in Iraq. He began his remarks at the weekly Prime Minister's Question Time by saluting the latest three British soldiers to die in Iraq and Afghanistan: "I know some may think that they face these dangers in vain; I don't and I never will.

"I believe they are fighting for the security of this country and the wider world against people who would destroy our way of life," he said.

After a lively, emotional and often humorous exchange with lawmakers, Blair said: "Some may belittle politics but we know, who are engaged in it, that it is where people stand tall. . . . It is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster.

"And if it is on occasions the place of low skullduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. And I wish everyone -- friend or foe -- well. And that is that. The end."

He quickly left the chamber to sustained applause and went briefly to the prime minister's official home and office at nearby 10 Downing Street, where a moving van had just taken away his family's personal belongings. Blair was then driven to Buckingham Palace, where he officially resigned in a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II.

Brown, 56, who has been Britain's finance minister, then separately met with the Queen, who by tradition invites the successor to form a new government. Having arrived in a red Vauxhall, Brown left the palace, after officially becoming prime minister, in a bulletproof black Jaguar.

The 2006 movie "The Queen," starring Helen Mirren, featured a scene in which the character of Tony Blair, played by Michael Sheen, kneels and kisses the monarch's hand when he becomes prime minister. Amid TV commentary that this might be happening in the closed-door meeting with Brown, a royal spokeswoman said in a telephone interview that no such thing really takes place: "There is no kneeling or kissing of hands. They just talk."

A less flashy, more somber politician than Blair, Brown pledged in his first address as Britain's leader to give the country "a new government, with new priorities."

"I have heard the need for change," Brown said, speaking in front of the black door that bears the number 10. He promised change in the national health system and schools. In a nod to the rising concern about immigration, he also said change was needed "to protect and extend the British way of life."

Brown did not mention any change in Britain's policy on Iraq, a main reason for Blair's growing unpopularity at the polls and his decision to step down now.

A few relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq protested at Downing Street on Wednesday by holding up pictures of the dead soldiers. They applauded when Blair drove away.

President Bush was among the many world leaders who telephoned Brown to congratulate him. The two have already met in Washington, but Brown is widely expected to play down any closeness to Bush, who is exceedingly unpopular in Britain.

Bush paid a warm tribute to Blair in an interview published Wednesday in the Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily, famous for photos of topless women on Page 3. "Tony's great skill, and I wish I had it, is that he's very articulate," Bush said. "I wish I was a better speaker. This guy can really . . . he can talk."

Bush went on to say: "I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle. He's bigger than that. . . . Somehow our relationship has been seen as Bush saying to Blair, 'Jump,' and Blair saying, 'How high?' But that's just not the way it works. It's a relationship where we say we're both going to jump together."

Brown and Blair worked side by side to win three consecutive elections. But in recent years, their relationship has grown strained and Brown has been increasingly impatient to take over the top job. Political experts here predict that Brown will announce his cabinet as soon as Thursday.

An intellectual who devours books and began studying at the University of Edinburgh at age 16, Brown is not a natural public speaker. He has been blind in his left eye since he was a teenager, the result of suffering a detached retina after being kicked in the head during a rugby match.

Blair will now serve as envoy to the Middle East for the diplomatic grouping known as the Quartet -- the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. His prime job will be to secure peace between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Bush welcomed the appointment. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed similar sentiments, saying his government would "render any assistance to Blair."

A spokesman for Hamas, the radical Islamic group that last year won Palestinian parliamentary elections and this month seized control of the Gaza Strip, said it could not accept the appointment. "He is a follower of the American project against Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. "He has always supported aggression against the Palestinians."

Carrying his own suitcase, Blair boarded a train late Wednesday afternoon to return to his constituency in northeastern England. There he resigned from the parliamentary seat he has held for 24 years. That will allow him more time to focus on the Middle East as well as other new pursuits, including writing his memoirs.

Correspondent Scott Wilson in Jerusalem, staff writer Robin Wright in Washington and special correspondent Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.