PEACEMAKER Jack Straw, Blackburn MP and Leader of the House, is confident a statement from Prime Minister Tony Blair about his exit from government will heal the rift in the Labour Party.

Mr Straw met with Tony Blair and also spoke to Mr Blair's rumoured successor Gordon Brown to help broker agreement between the two sides, after the Prime Minister faced calls for his own resignation.

Yesterday afternoon Mr Blair was forced to make a statement on his intentions and although he did not set a date for his exit, he insisted he would be gone in a year's time.

He said he would name the day when it was in the best interests of the country.

He apologised for the internal arguments in his party over his departure, and added it "has not been our finest hour, to be frank".

Last night Mr Straw told the Lancashire Telegraph: "Tony has said all that he needs to say.

"It is unprecedented for a serving prime minister to give this indication and we should respect his decision.

"I think we have looked over the abyss and stepped back."

He said people knew from the experience of the way Margaret Thatcher, former Tory prime minister, was politically assassinated that the party risked tearing itself apart if it continued.

When asked how close to that the party had come, he answered: "Some way off."

Earlier in the day Mr Brown, chancellor of the exchequer, had said he would support Mr Blair what ever his decision was.

Mr Straw backed Mr Brown to take over when the PM stood down, and said a leadership contest was "unnecessary".

"I think both statements were appropriate and will lead to some calm," he added.

Yesterday morning Mr Straw appeared on BBC Radio Four's Today programme to attempt to calm the situation.

He spoke for out in favour of both sides of the Blair/Brown divide.

"I am clear, so far as the letters that have been written, that Mr Brown was not asked whether these letters should be written and indeed, had he been asked, he would not have authorised those letters to be written," he said.

"This is a Prime Minister who ought to be given credit for being more precise about his intentions, he has done so not just in the interests of the party but in the interest of the government.

"I have spoken to him the PM to where we have got to and we also be very content with there being an orderly hand over to a new leader who I hope will be Gordon Brown, I think that's the sentiment of the party."

He said the party owed it to the country and the voters to wrap up the argument and get on with the business of governing the nation.