BRITAIN: Mr Tony Blair's hospital treatment for his irregular heartbeat was very successful said Chancellor Gordon Brown last night as the Prime Minister returned home to 10 Downing Street. Frank Millar reports from London.
Mr Blair's wife Cheri accompanied him to London's Hammersmith Hospital early yesterday morning for the 2½ catheter ablation. This is a procedure successfully undertaken by thousands of patients in the UK each year, according to Prof John Camm of the British Heart Foundation.
The Prime Minister stunned Westminster on Thursday night by confirming the recurrence of the heart problem which first surfaced last year, while declaring his intention to seek a third term in office but ruling out a fourth.
Mr Blair's attempt to manage the point of his own departure from Number 10 provoked suggestions that he is already a "lame duck" prime minister. It sparked furious speculation about a possible public and protracted succession battle, which could force him out before his preferred time shortly before the general election after the next, which is still expected in the summer.
And a former Labour chancellor Lord (Denis) Healey said it would be better for Mr Blair to stand down now, and that uncertainty about the future leadership would be damaging to the Labour government.
However Mr Blair's cabinet colleagues - including those tipped to lead the field in the eventual leadership contest - rallied yesterday in a public display of unity built around common goodwill for the Prime Minister.
Speaking from Washington Mr Brown said: "The thoughts of all of us are with the Prime Minister, for his health and wellbeing. The whole country's thoughts will be with the Prime Minister."
In London, meanwhile, Mr Brown's old adversary Mr Alan Milburn - recently restored to cabinet and handed the chancellor's previous job in charge of Labour's election campaign - suggested there would be no leadership contest "for at least five years or more". Mr Milburn insisted Mr Blair's stated intention to serve a full third term should be taken at face value.
"He made it perfectly clear [on Thursday\] that that is his intention. If we can win the general election - and that is absolutely in the gift of the British people - then it is the Prime Minister's intention to go back and serve a full term," he said.
"I really don't know what people don't understand about the word 'full'. It means what it says. So we are not going to have any leadership contest for at least five years or more."