I noticed that Tony Blair was special at my very first encounter with him.

It was during the early 80s, when the Labour Party looked as if it was working hard on its own extinction.

The extreme left were attacking us from one side, whilst the breakaway "Social Democratic Party" of former Labour ministers like Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams were gnawing away from the other side.

For those of us in the middle, Michael Foot's leadership did not feel all that safe and inspiring; our poll ratings were dropping like a stone.

Against this inauspicious background, Tony told me that he wanted to give up a successful career as a barrister, and go into Parliament.

I was pleased for the party, but worried that he'd find the grind of opposition as debilitating as the rest of us did.

Not daunted, he arrived in the Commons in 1983 - the year we suffered our worst post-war defeat. He quickly made his mark. But it wasn't until the 1992 General Election that I realised that he had that star quality necessary to give Labour a sustained future.

That was perhaps the most depressing election of the four we lost, because our hopes had been raised, then dashed.

The bright spot was Tony's ability to "reach out" to the public.

His skill in reaching the nerve of the electorate, instinctively understanding their wants and needs, is one of the attributes which mark him out as a towering figure.

Even greater has been Tony's consistent facility to see far beyond the horizon to spot problems and issues before they arise, and to demand action to deal with them.

This has driven his desire for "public sector reform".

Sometimes it made him unpopular with those delivering the services. Take health and education.

These are great public services, and we are proud of our role in founding the NHS and our commitment to good state schooling for all.

But public expectation of these services has changed.

No longer will people put up with a "take it or leave it" approach.

They want a more personal service, as well as a better quality one.

So alongside ensuring huge extra taxpayer investment in schools and hospitals, Tony insisted on major reform to the way these services performed - by cutting waiting lists, by increasing the number of doctors and nurses, and by a vast programme of new building - from which East Lancashire has benefited, as much as any other area.

In assessments of Tony as he prepares to leave office, Iraq looms large.

His leadership on this will be the subject of argument for decades.

But the decision to go to war was taken with the greatest of reluctance, by Cabinet and Parliament on the recommendation of senior ministers - me included.

It was done on the best information then available, and with the whole of the United Nations Security Council judging in November 2002 that Iraq "posed a threat to international peace and security".

Much of the intelligence turned out to be inaccurate, but no one lied, and Tony's concern was forged by his first war experience of Kosovo, where it was his intervention alone which led to the saving of thousands of innocent Muslim lives.

Life without Tony at the top will be hard for all of us; he has been such a dominant figure for so long.

I think history and the British people will judge him as one of the most successful and determined Prime Ministers of at least the last century.