Blair stepping down and interest rate rises

It seems interesting that Tony Blair chose to announce he was stepping down as prime minister on the same day that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee was due to meet and was widely expected to increase interest rates, which they did. The BBC news website has the Blair story first and apparently Blair wanted this to be a day of "no-spin" so I think it is unlikely he thought his leaving would be a good way to distract from the interest rate rise.