UK: Tony Blair has begun his long farewell with a warning to trade unionists that Labour's delivery of public service reform would be the key issue in the next British general election.
The outgoing prime minister used his valedictory speech to the TUC Congress in Brighton yesterday to again face down critics demanding his immediate departure from office - while delivering a trenchant defence of his performance at home and abroad - which prompted a statement of support from the man expected to succeed him chancellor Gordon Brown.
In a surprise move before his own encounter with union leaders at a private dinner last night, Mr Brown condemned members of the RMT union who raised placards declaring "Blair Out" and "Time to Go" before staging a walkout as Mr Blair rose to speak.
Criticising those who walked out when they had the chance to listen and ask questions, Mr Brown urged all trade unionists "to support the reform agenda set out by Tony Blair and agreed by the whole government".
However, while that confirmed Mr Brown has no wish to be seen as a candidate of the left in the upcoming succession battle, it did nothing to warm relations with members of Mr Blair's inner circle as they continued their effort to identify a credible alternative leadership contender.
One insider cited the chancellor's backing for Mr Blair's speech as proof only that Mr Brown was "a worried man" following evidence of damage to his standing as front-runner after the failure of what the Blairites consider last week's "failed coup".
In a separate attempt to calm tensions yesterday, the treasury confirmed newspaper reports that Mr Brown is to move his family into the flat above 10 Downing Street - while stressing this was on the advice of Special Branch and with "the agreement and help" of Mr Blair's office.
Mr Brown and his wife have until now preferred to spend nights at their private London apartment.
However, a spokesman said that following the birth of their second son, and on security advice "Gordon, Sarah and the boys will be starting to live full time in the current flat at Number 10" which the chancellor has had the use of since 1997.
This clarification followed reports that Mr Blair's wife, Cheri, had been shocked to be asked where she wanted new curtains put only to discover that they had been ordered by Ms Brown.
At the weekend Mr Brown sought to counter suggestions that he was being presumptuous about the outcome of the future leadership contest, making clear that he would favour a genuine contest rather than a so-called "coronation".
Meanwhile, speculation about the timing of the contest was also kept alive as Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain formally declared himself a candidate to replace deputy leader John Prescott "when that contest happens next year".
Confirming his long-predicted candidacy, Mr Hain declared: "I will be seeking that office not for its own sake but in order to take forward the process of party reform and renewal."
Again insisting that no one but Mr Brown should succeed Mr Blair, Mr Hain said that while there was no ideological schism inside the Labour Party, renewing itself in government would be difficult.
"We need to reconnect the leadership with the grass roots in the party and we need to reconnect the government to civil society and people and citizens outside," he said.
Mr Hain also underlined the irony of Mr Blair's position yesterday, when he described the prime minister's Brighton speech as one from a politician still "at the top of his game".
Mr Blair told protesting delegates bearing "troops out" placards that they should be proud of what British forces were doing in support of democratic governments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also of the efforts of British trade unions to help workers in those countries gain union rights for the first time.
Recalling Labour's 18 years in opposition and his own success in delivering three successive terms of Labour government "after 100 years of trying", Mr Blair told the TUC Congress the "brutal truth" was that governing was "a hard and difficult business".
And while making no direct reference to his own political "legacy", the prime minister asserted that he would leave behind "a more open and more decent society" than Labour inherited from the Conservatives almost 10 years ago.