Commons standing ovation for Blair

He brought down the curtain on a decade in power with his final Prime Minister's Questions.

Mr Blair signed off with an admission that while he had never been "a great House of Commons man" that he had never stopped fearing it.

"Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall.

"Although I know it has its many harsh contentions it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster," he said.

"If it is on occasions still the place of low skulduggery it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes.

"I wish everyone, friend or foe, well. And that is that. The end."

Mr Cameron beckoned Tories to their feet after Labour MPs rose to theirs.

Only Robin Cook, following his resignation speech over Iraq, has received any sort of standing ovation in the chamber in recent history.

Before leaving Mr Blair raised a laugh at the expense of one of his chief euro-sceptic tormentors, Tory MP Sir Nicholas Winterton, by bidding him farewell in three European languages: "Au revoir, auf Wiedersehen, arrivederci".