Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has predicted that Gordon Brown will succeed Tony Blair.

Kinnock, who will shortly go to the House of Lords, said Brown will emerge as victor despite the possibility of a challenge from an up-and-coming Blairite such as Alan Milburn.

However he went on to say that the chancellor will not seek to pre-empt a leadership election.

"He is not an insurrectionary, he is not someone who would seek to displace one of the most successful prime ministers that the country's had the good fortune to know," said Kinnock.

In an interview with the Jonathan Dimbleby programme, Kinnock said: "Nothing's going to happen until Tony decides it will happen... There's going to be no effort to dislodge Tony Blair. He will make up his own mind.

"When that occurs I don't think that the race will be tumultuous and I certainly don't think it will be long. And if he seeks to become Leader of the Labour Party and therefore prime minister, I'm certain, I always have been certain that Gordon Brown will emerge as the victor."

The former Labour leader, who recently left his role as a European commissioner, said the chancellor is "a man of great strengths".

But he conceded that a Tory-style coronation is unlikely to happen once Tony Blair stands aside.

"Well there will probably be other candidates. I mean that's good, to have a democratic choice. But Gordon plainly is a man of great strengths and will be a strong contender," he said.

Blair kicked off the recent bout of leadership speculation in early November when he announced that he would not seek a fourth term as Labour leader.

Last week the prime minister personally intervened in the leadership discussions by insisting that Brown would "make an excellent prime minister".

However one senior Labour MP recently conceded that while Brown "remains Blair's choice as successor, he is not the Blairites' choice".