Tony Blair admitted today that "a lot of luck" is required to become Prime Minister.

Responding to a question posed by 11-year-old Lauren Thomas at a Birmingham school, Mr Blair paused for thought before joking that good fortune had smoothed his path towards Downing Street.

The Prime Minister was officially opening a new #750,000 inclusion unit at Bournville School when he was challenged by Lauren, who asked him: "How do you get to be Prime Minister?"

Mr Blair replied: "It's a long story. There is a lot of luck in it."

Lauren revealed later that she would like to follow in Mr Blair's footsteps and pledged to use four-leaf clovers and lucky horseshoes to fulfil her ambition.

Earlier, the Prime Minister was shown a branch of the NatWest Bank run by students at the school, which is designated as a specialist business and enterprise college.

Mr Blair congratulated staff and students at the 1,243-pupil school after hearing how the percentage of teenagers achieving A-C grades at GCSE had more than doubled in the past eight years.

Unfurling a flag to mark the official opening of the new unit for pupils with special needs, the Prime Minister observed: "The help that's being given here is remarkable.

"One of the reasons I wanted to come here today was to show people that with some more money going in and the commitment and dedication of teaching staff... we can make big improvements."

Read more on this story - including an interview with the Prime Minister - in Wednesday's Birmingham Post