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Timeline for the Labour Party (UK) leadership elections, 2007


The timeline for the British Labour Party leadership elections of 2007 is a timeline of events relating to the final years of Tony Blair's tenure as leader of the party and Prime Minister and the leadership elections to find replacements for him and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, from his announcement that he would not lead Labour into a fourth General Election, concluding with Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister.

On 30 September 2004, Tony Blair said he would not seek a fourth term as Prime Minister. Labour went on to win a third successive term at the May 2005 General Election with a decreased majority of 66, with Blair pledging to serve another full term.

Labour and Blair subsequently had a surge in popularity, at the time of terrorist bombings of London of July 2005, but by the Spring of 2006 were facing significant difficulties, most notably with scandals over failures by the Home Office to deport illegal immigrants and national campaigns by many political parties and think tanks saying that the United Kingdom was being overrun by immigrants. Worries over the potential increase of support for the British National Party during the 2006 Local Election campaign saw many Labour backbenchers and activists begin to demand a timetable from Blair for his departure, with many suggesting that it should be sooner rather than later.

Speculation over the timing of Blair's resignation had been amplified by a variety of politicians and newspapers making their own predictions. On 6 September 2006, The Sun reported that Blair would announce a timetable on 31 May 2007, with his replacement to take office by the end of July, and on 21 April The Guardian reported that the Brown camp were working on the assumption that Blair would announce the candidacy open on 9 May 2007, the day after power-sharing was due to start in Northern Ireland, following which the new Labour leader would be elected on 15 July 2007.


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