Blair

In his first radio interview since his resignation as Prime Minister, Tony Blair spoke to BBC Tees Mark Turnbull about life after number ten, and the emotions he felt as he woke up and prepared to leave office:

"When I was speaking to various people who called me up yesterday, they've got to switch from 'Prime Minister' to plain old 'Mr Blair'.

"It'll take some getting used to but then there's an exciting challenge ahead through the Middle East issue. The scale of the challenge is pretty clear."

You must have built relationships with some of those people, was there a touch of warm, or maybe a tinge of sadness in those calls?

"I've been in the situation of saying goodbye to other leaders that have retired, for example I was speaking to President Clinton yesterday, and I said goodbye to him when he was going out of the White House.

"A decade's a long time at the top and I've formed some strong relationships."

How does it feel waking up the morning after the day before?

"The thing I noticed this morning, there was no red box.

"I'll also have to get my head around technology... I'll need to learn it all!"

"But I also think too, if I wasn't doing this Middle East thing I would have stayed.

"There's still a lot to do... but there's big change happening."

So how about your new role as a Middle East peace envoy?

"It's a big challenge, but on the other hand there's nothing more important.

"Important in terms of its symbolism, its significance, not just to people in Israel, in the Palestinian territories, but throughout the whole of the world.

"This is an issue that if we don't resolve it, it increasingly creates tension and friction between people of different countries and different faiths.

"It's a big challenge and I look forward to it."

Listen to BBC Tees Mark Turnbull talking to Tony Blair by clicking the links at the top right of this page.