Tony Blair

The Right Honourable Sir Tony Blair KG
Official portrait, 2010
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 2 May 1997 – 27 June 2007
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Deputy	John Prescott
Preceded by	John Major
Succeeded by	Gordon Brown
Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East
In office 27 June 2007 – 27 May 2015
Preceded by	James Wolfensohn
Succeeded by	Kito de Boer
Leader of the Opposition
In office 21 July 1994 – 2 May 1997
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	John Major
Deputy	John Prescott
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	John Major
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 21 July 1994 – 24 June 2007
Deputy	John Prescott
Preceded by	John Smith
Succeeded by	Gordon Brown
Shadow portfolios 1987‍–‍1994 Shadow Secretary of State 1988–1989 Energy 1989–1992 Employment 1992–1994 Home Department Shadow Minister 1987–1988 Trade
Member of Parliament for Sedgefield
In office 9 June 1983 – 27 June 2007
Preceded by	Constituency established[a]
Succeeded by	Phil Wilson
Personal details
Born	Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (1953-05-06) 6 May 1953 (age 71) Edinburgh, Scotland
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Cherie Booth ​ (m. 1980)​
Children	4, including Euan and Nicky
Parent	Leo Blair (father)
Relatives	William Blair (brother)
Education	Chorister School Fettes College
Alma mater	St John's College, Oxford (BA)
Signature
Website	Institute for Global Change
Tony Blair's voice Blair on the 10 Downing Street YouTube channel and how web communications can improve political engagement Recorded 21 June 2007

This article is part of a series about Tony Blair
Electoral history MP for Sedgefield Beaconsfield by-election Leader of the Opposition Leadership election Brown Deal Shadow Cabinet Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Premiership Policies New Labour, New Life for Britain Blairism New Labour Third Way Appointments "Tony's Cronies" "Blair Babes" First ministry and term (May 1997 – June 2001) Ministry 1997 election Chancellorship of Gordon Brown 1997 budget 1998 budget 1999 budget 2000 budget 2001 budget Good Friday Agreement peace process Handover of Hong Kong People's princess Kosovo War Military intervention in Sierra Leone Second ministry and term (June 2001 – May 2005) Ministry 2001 re-election 9/11 War on terror War in Afghanistan 2003 invasion of Iraq Iraq and weapons of mass destruction Saddam–al-Qaeda conspiracy theory Bush memo Downing Street memo February Dossier September Dossier Ultimatum to Iraq Iraq War 2002 budget 2003 budget 2004 budget 2005 budget Third ministry and term (May 2005 – June 2007) Ministry 2005 re-election Cabinet reshuffle 2006 budget 2007 budget Cash for Honours London bombings Respect agenda Leadership succession Post–Prime Minister 2007 Sedgefield by-election Quartet on the Middle East A Journey (autobiography) Associates Faith Foundation Iraq Inquiry Sports Foundation Institute for Global Change
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Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997 and held various shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994. Blair was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007, and was special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East from 2007 to 2015. He is the second-longest-serving prime minister in post-war British history after Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving Labour politician to have held the office, and the first and only person to date to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories.

Blair attended the independent school Fettes College, studied law at St John's College, Oxford, and qualified as a barrister. He became involved in the Labour Party and was elected to the House of Commons in 1983 for the Sedgefield constituency in County Durham. As a backbencher, Blair supported moving the party to the political centre of British politics. He was appointed to Neil Kinnock's shadow cabinet in 1988 and was appointed shadow home secretary by John Smith in 1992. Following Smith's death in 1994, Blair won a leadership election to succeed him. As leader, Blair began a historic rebranding of the party, which became known as "New Labour".

Blair became the youngest prime minister of the 20th century after his party won a landslide victory of 418 seats (the largest in its history) in the 1997 general election, bringing an end to 18 years in the opposition. It was the first victory for the Labour Party in nearly 23 years, the last one being in October 1974.

During his first term, Blair enacted constitutional reforms and significantly increased public spending on healthcare and education while also introducing controversial market-based reforms in these areas. In addition, Blair saw the introduction of a minimum wage, tuition fees for higher education, constitutional reform such as devolution in Scotland and Wales, an extensive expansion of LGBT+ rights in the UK, and significant progress in the Northern Ireland peace process with the passing of the landmark Good Friday Agreement. On foreign policy, Blair oversaw British interventions in Kosovo in 1999 and Sierra Leone in 2000, which were generally perceived to be successful.

Blair won a second term after Labour won a second landslide victory in the 2001 general election. Three months into his second term, Blair's premiership was shaped by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, resulting in the start of the war on terror. Blair supported the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration by ensuring that the British Armed Forces participated in the War in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al-Qaeda, and capture Osama bin Laden. Blair supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and had the British Armed Forces participate in the Iraq War, on the inaccurate beliefs that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and developed ties with al-Qaeda. The invasion of Iraq was particularly controversial, as it attracted widespread public opposition and 139 of Blair's own MPs opposed it. As a result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the circumstances of the decision. The Iraq Inquiry report of 2016 gave a damning assessment of Blair's role in the Iraq War. As the casualties of the Iraq War mounted, Blair was accused of misleading Parliament, and his popularity dropped dramatically.

Blair won a third term after Labour won a third election victory in 2005, in part thanks to the UK's strong economic performance, but with a substantially reduced majority, due to the UK's involvement in the Iraq War. During his third term, Blair pushed for more systemic public sector reform and brokered a settlement to restore powersharing to Northern Ireland. He had a surge in popularity at the time of terrorist bombings of London of July 2005, but by the Spring of 2006 faced significant difficulties, most notably with scandals over failures by the Home Office to deport illegal immigrants. Amid the Cash-for-Honours scandal, Blair was interviewed three times as prime minister, though only as a witness and not under caution. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars continued, and in 2006, Blair announced he would resign within a year. He resigned the party leadership on 24 June 2007 and as prime minister on 27 June, and was succeeded by Gordon Brown, his chancellor.

After leaving office, Blair gave up his seat and was appointed special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a diplomatic post he held until 2015. He has been the executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change since 2016 and has made occasional political interventions, and has been a key influence on Keir Starmer. In 2009, Blair was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush. He was made a Knight Companion of the Garter by Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. At various points in his premiership, Blair was among both the most popular and most unpopular politicians in British history. As prime minister, he achieved the highest recorded approval ratings during his first few years in office but also one of the lowest ratings during and after the Iraq War.^[1][2][3][4] Blair is usually rated as above average in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers.

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