LONDON, May 11 (RIA Novosti) - British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown launched his campaign to become the leader of the ruling Labour party Friday, a day after the country's prime minister announced his impending resignation from the post.
Brown, 56, tipped as the most likely candidate to replace Tony Blair as the Labour leader and prime minister, will spend the next few weeks touring Britain to rally support of party workers in the provinces. He has invited former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who leads the Labour faction in the House of Commons, to be his campaign manager.
Blair, who is quitting 10 Downing Street after a decade in office, formally endorsed Brown as his successor Friday.
Only two Labour representatives - veteran MPs Michael Meacher and John McDonnell - have so far announced their intention to challenge Brown's bid. Both will run on a left-wing platform.
Brown said he would stick to the more centrist agenda of Blair's New Labour and try to maintain Britain's steady economic growth, widely seen as the result of his own efforts as the Treasury chief. He said his government would serve the nation rather than bossing it around, and promised to learn from the mistakes of the Iraq war, which are partly to blame for Labour's dwindling popularity.
Whoever takes over from Blair will face the challenge of reviving support for the party, which suffered heavy losses in May 4 regional and local elections over Britain's continued military presence in Iraq and a recent criminal probe into Labour's alleged soliciting of multi-million pound loans for its 2005 election campaign in exchange for peerages.
The name of Labour's next leader will become known June 24, and the successful candidate will take over the premiership from Blair three days later.
