Brown next at Number 10 Downing Street?
By Bill Schneider
CNN Washington Bureau
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|  VIDEO |
 Blair wins election, but voters deliver a verdict on the war in Iraq.
 British Prime Minister Tony Blair celebrates victory on Friday.
 British Conservative Leader Michael Howard thanks everyone in his re-election.
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LONDON (CNN) -- Here in Britain, Tony Blair may have been re-elected but the political Play of the Week goes to ... another chap.
Gordon Brown, Tony Blair's chancellor, or finance minister has been a long-time rival with Blair for power in the British Labour Party.
In the last two British elections, the campaign was all about Blair.
This year, Blair and Brown were a team. They campaigned all over the country together. They made a chummy campaign commercial together. They even shared ice cream.
Why did Blair need to reach out to his rival? Look at their job ratings in a YouGov poll last month.
Only 46 percent of the British think Blair is doing a good job. Sixty-six percent think Brown is doing a good job.
Blair's burden was Iraq. On election night, Blair stood in embarrassment while a rival candidate in his own district -- a father who lost a son in Iraq -- delivered a concession speech in which he attacked Blair's war policy.
"Tonight there are lessons to be learned. I hope in my heart that one day the prime minister may be able to say, 'Sorry," said Reg Keyes, who challenged Blair in the election.
The prime minister was chastened.
"I've listened and I've learned," said Blair.
Labour took just 36 percent of the vote -- the smallest share ever for a winning party.
Labour can stay in power but may wish to replace Blair as prime minister, something that can be done in Britain.
What the voters were saying was, we want to keep Labour in because the economy is good. But we want to get Blair out because we don't trust him after Iraq.
Blair is expected to hand over leadership to Brown sometime before the next election.
Gordon Brown has been next door to power for eight years. Literally. The chancellor's office is at Number 11 Downing Street. A vacancy at Number 10 could come soon.
The irony is, Brown supported Blair's Iraq policy.
"You would have behaved in an identical way to Tony Blair faced with the same circumstances," a journalist asked Brown at a Labour press conference. Brown answered, "Yes."
But the chancellor was identified with a different policy.
"We ask the British people, are you better off now than eight years ago?" said Brown.
Now he's is in position to topple Blair, as cartoonist Gerald Scarfe suggests, Number Ten Downing Street will be Brown's, just like the political Play of the Week.
There is endless chatter here in London about how Brown's views compare with Blair's. Brown is believed to be more in tune with the traditions of the Labour Party.
Does that mean he's to the left of Blair? No one is quite sure.
