A defiant Tony Blair vowed to stay on as prime minister and see out the bulk of his third term before handing over the baton to Chancellor Gordon Brown prior to the next election, which could be as far away as 2010.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm here and I'm going to see the whole programme through," Blair told The Sun, a leading tabloid Thursday night adding that he would not flinch in the face of Labour rebels.
Just back from a holiday in Egypt, Blair said, "I'm absolutely happy that Gordon will be my successor. He needs the confidence of knowing he will succeed me and that's fair enough."
The tabloid stated that Blair's declaration that he will carry on will be a blow to the chancellor but Brown will be able to take comfort from the premier's public endorsement of him as successor.
Blair is working on a handover strategy giving Brown the best chance of winning a fourth Labour election victory in 2009 and wants him to cash in on a 'honeymoon period', which would come if he took over close to the polling date.
"I feel good about our agenda. If you've won three elections then you're obviously what the people want," he said. "I want to see through the changes I've made and the changes I'm making."
Blair has been under pressure in recent months following his first Parliamentary defeat since coming to power in 1997 when MPs voted against a proposal to detain terrorist suspects for a maximum 90 days without charge.