Tony Blair

Following the sudden death of the leader of the Labour Party, John Smith in July 1994, Tony Blair was elected by his own party to the position of leader of the Labour party. Due to the unpopularity of John Major’s Conservative Party, Labour won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election in the UK. Blair took the Labour Party into government, ending eighteen years of Conservative government in the United Kingdom

He was the youngest Prime Minister since  Lord Liverpool in 1812.Tony Blair was born on May 6^th 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland to Leo and Hazel Blair.  He spent most of his childhood growing up in Durham, in the north of England.

After finishing Durham’s Chorister School Tony boarded at Fettes College, a famous independent school in Edinburgh. While as a student, he played guitar and sang for a rock band called Ugly Rumours. Blair graduated from Oxford University with a second class degree. Blair then enrolled in Lincoln’s Inn as a pupil barrister and met his wife, Cherie Booth who went on to marry in 1980.

It was after graduating from Oxford that Blair joined the Labour Party.

One of the most memorable achievements of Blair’s first term in office was the signing of the Belfast Agreement on April 10^th 1998, generally known as the Good Friday Agreement. This was to become the first major step in the peaceful and democratic framework for the governance of Northern Ireland.In 1999, Blair planned and presided over the declaration of the Kosovo War. 

In the 2001 general election the Labour Party won once again making Tony Blair the first Labour Prime Minister to win a full second term. Not long into his second term the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and The Pentagon on September 11^th 2001 would cause Blair to align the UK with the United States which subsequently took both countries into the war on terror with Afghanistan.Again in 2003 Blair offered the United Kingdom’s full support for George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Blair became the face of international support for the war while French President Jacques Chirac became the face of international opposition. Blair gave constant vocal support to Bush during his speeches advocating the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein.

Prior to George W Bush’s election as President of the U.S. Tony Blair had also had a close working relationship with Bush’s predecessor President Bill Clinton, often meeting with both Bill and Hillary Clinton along with his wife Cherie.

Nelson Mandela once referred to Blair as "the US foreign minister".August 2003 saw Blair as the longest continuously serving Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, surpassing Harold Wilson's 1964-1970 term.

In September 2004 Kofi Annan, The Secretary General of the United Nations stated that the invasion was “illegal” which resulted in several anti-war pressure groups calling for Blair to be tried for war crimes.Once again after a general election on Thursday 5 May 2005 Tony Blair led the Labour Party into a third consecutive term in office.

Blair urged his fellow EU members on October 20, 2006 to send a strong message to the Sudanese government that it must allow a UN force into Darfur, arguing that it is a critical time for Darfur and therefore a chance for the EU to strengthen the pressure on the Sudanese government.  Criticism of Tony Blair includes his alliance with U.S. President George W Bush in his support for the Iraq War and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Signs of increasing lack of popularity towards him came in a poll by a British television station in 2003 which found Tony Blair listed as first in a list of the one hundred worst Britons.On 7 September 2006, Blair announced that the 2006 Labour Party conference would be his last as leader. Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is the favourite to be the next Labour Party leader and would therefore take over the position of Prime Minister.

Tony and Cherie have four children, Euan, Kathryn, Nicky and Leo, who was born during his second term in office and is the first legitimate child to be born to a serving British Prime Minister in 150 years.

In 2004 Tony and Cherie bought a home at 29 Connaught Square, London, for a reported £3.5 million where he is expected live after he resigns later in 2007.

In mid May 2007 Tony Blair announced that he would step down as the British Prime Minister in June 2007, leaving the way clear for Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequor to step into the position. No other candidates stood against Brown for the position of P.M.