Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair KG (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 served as 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. He is the second-longest-serving prime minister in post-war British history (after Margaret Thatcher) and the longest-serving Labour politician to have held the office.
"Anthony Blair" redirects here. For other uses, see Anthony Blair (disambiguation) and Tony Blair (disambiguation).
Sir Tony Blair
Elizabeth II
John Major
John Prescott
John Major
John Prescott
Gordon Brown
Constituency established[a]
- Leo Blair (father)
William Blair (brother)
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 winning the 1997 general election, Labour's largest general election victory in history. 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 was re-elected in a second landslide in 2001. 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. In 2003, Blair supported the invasion of Iraq and had the British Armed Forces participate in the Iraq War, on the false claims that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and developed close ties with al-Qaeda.
Blair was re-elected 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. 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. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II as a Knight Companion of the Garter 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]
Early years
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born on 6 May 1953 at Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh, Scotland.[5][6][7][8] He was the second son of Leo and Hazel (née Corscadden) Blair.[9] Leo Blair was the illegitimate son of two entertainers and was adopted as a baby by the Glasgow shipyard worker James Blair and his wife, Mary.[10] Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher and Orangeman who moved to Glasgow in 1916. In 1923, he returned to (and later died in) Ballyshannon, County Donegal, in Ulster. In Ballyshannon, Corscadden's wife, Sarah Margaret (née Lipsett), gave birth above the family's grocery shop to Blair's mother, Hazel.[11][12]
Blair has an elder brother, William, and a younger sister, Sarah. Blair's first home was with his family at Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of Edinburgh. During this period, his father worked as a junior tax inspector whilst studying for a law degree from the University of Edinburgh.[5]
Blair's first relocation was when he was nineteen months old. At the end of 1954, Blair's parents and their two sons moved from Paisley Terrace to Adelaide, South Australia.[13] His father lectured in law at the University of Adelaide.[14] In Australia, Blair's sister, Sarah, was born. The Blairs lived in the suburb of Dulwich close to the university. The family returned to the United Kingdom in mid-1958. They lived for a time with Hazel's mother and stepfather (William McClay) at their home in Stepps on the outskirts of north-east Glasgow. Blair's father accepted a job as a lecturer at Durham University, and moved the family to Durham, England, when Blair was five. It was the beginning of a long association Blair was to have with Durham.[13]
Since childhood, Blair has been a fan of Newcastle United football club.[15][16][17]
Education and legal career
With his parents basing their family in Durham, Blair attended the Chorister School from 1961 to 1966.[18] Aged 13, he was sent to spend his school term-time boarding at Fettes College in Edinburgh from 1966 to 1971.[19] According to Blair, he hated his time at Fettes.[20] His teachers were unimpressed with him; his biographer, John Rentoul, reported that "[a]ll the teachers I spoke to when researching the book said he was a complete pain in the backside and they were very glad to see the back of him."[19] Blair reportedly modelled himself on Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones.[21] Leaving Fettes College at the age of 18, Blair next spent a gap year in London working as a rock music promoter.[22]
In 1972, at the age of 19, Blair matriculated at St John's College, Oxford, reading jurisprudence for three years.[23] As a student, he played guitar and sang in a rock band called Ugly Rumours,[24][25] and performed stand-up comedy.[26] He was influenced by fellow student and Anglican priest Peter Thomson, who awakened his religious faith and left-wing politics. While at Oxford, Blair has stated that he was briefly a Trotskyist, after reading the first volume of Isaac Deutscher's biography of Leon Trotsky, which was "like a light going on".[27][28] He graduated from Oxford at the age of 22 in 1975 with a second-class Honours B.A. in jurisprudence.[29][30]
In 1975, while Blair was at Oxford, his mother Hazel died aged 52 of thyroid cancer, which greatly affected him.[31][32]
After Oxford, Blair served his barrister pupillage at Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the Bar. He met his future wife, Cherie Booth, at the chambers founded by Derry Irvine (who was to be Blair's first lord chancellor), 11 King's Bench Walk Chambers.[33]
Relationship with media
Rupert Murdoch
Blair was reported by The Guardian in 2006 to have been supported politically by Rupert Murdoch, the founder of the News Corporation organisation.[181] In 2011, Blair became godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch's children with Wendi Deng,[182] but he and Murdoch later ended their friendship, in 2014, after Murdoch suspected him of having an affair with Deng while they were still married, according to The Economist magazine.[183][184][185][186]
Contacts with UK media proprietors
A Cabinet Office freedom of information response, released the day after Blair handed over power to Gordon Brown, documents Blair having various official phone calls and meetings with Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation and Richard Desmond of Northern and Shell Media.[187]
The response includes contacts "clearly of an official nature" in the specified period, but excludes contacts "not clearly of an official nature."[188] No details were given of the subjects discussed. In the period between September 2002 and April 2005, Blair and Murdoch are documented speaking 6 times; three times in the 9 days before the Iraq War, including the eve of 20 March US and UK invasion, and on 29 January 25 April and 3 October 2004. Between January 2003 and February 2004, Blair had three meetings with Richard Desmond; on 29 January and 3 September 2003 and 23 February 2004.[189]
The information was disclosed after a 3+1⁄2-year battle by the Liberal Democrats' Lord Avebury.[187] Lord Avebury's initial October 2003 information request was dismissed by then leader of the Lords, Baroness Amos.[187] A following complaint was rejected, with Downing Street claiming the information compromised free and frank discussions, while Cabinet Office claimed releasing the timing of the PM's contacts with individuals is undesirable, as it might lead to the content of the discussions being disclosed.[187] While awaiting a following appeal from Lord Avebury, the cabinet office announced that it would release the information. Lord Avebury said: "The public can now scrutinise the timing of his (Murdoch's) contacts with the former prime minister, to see whether they can be linked to events in the outside world."[187]
Blair appeared before the Leveson Inquiry on Monday 28 May 2012.[190] During his appearance, a protester, later named as David Lawley-Wakelin, got into the court-room and claimed he was guilty of war crimes before being dragged out.[191]
Media portrayal
Blair has been noted as a charismatic, articulate speaker with an informal style.[54] Film and theatre director Richard Eyre opined that "Blair had a very considerable skill as a performer".[192] A few months after becoming prime minister Blair gave a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, on the morning of her death in August 1997, in which he famously described her as "the People's Princess".[193][194]
After taking office in 1997, Blair gave particular prominence to his press secretary, who became known as the prime minister's official spokesman (the two roles have since been separated). Blair's first PMOS was Alastair Campbell, who served in that role from May 1997 to 8 June 2001, after which he served as the prime minister's director of communications and strategy until his resignation on 29 August 2003 in the aftermath of the Hutton Inquiry.[195]
Blair had close relationships with the Clinton family. The strong partnership with Bill Clinton was made into the film The Special Relationship in 2010.[196]
Post-premiership (since 2007)
Diplomacy
On 27 June 2007, Blair officially resigned as prime minister after ten years in office, and he was officially confirmed as Middle East envoy for the United Nations, European Union, United States, and Russia.[201] Blair originally indicated that he would retain his parliamentary seat after his resignation as prime minister came into effect; however, on being confirmed for the Middle East role he resigned from the Commons by taking up an office of profit.[110] President George W. Bush had preliminary talks with Blair to ask him to take up the envoy role. White House sources stated that "both Israel and the Palestinians had signed up to the proposal".[202][203] In May 2008 Blair announced a new plan for peace and for Palestinian rights, based heavily on the ideas of the Peace Valley plan.[204] Blair resigned as envoy in May 2015.[205]
Private sector
In January 2008, it was confirmed that Blair would be joining investment bank JPMorgan Chase in a "senior advisory capacity"[206] and that he would advise Zurich Financial Services on climate change. His salary for this work is unknown, although it has been claimed it may be in excess of £500,000 per year.[206] Blair also gives lectures, earning up to US$250,000 for a 90-minute speech, and in 2008 he was said to be the highest paid speaker in the world.[207]
Blair taught a course on issues of faith and globalisation at the Yale University Schools of Management and Divinity as a Howland distinguished fellow during the 2008–09 academic year. In July 2009, this accomplishment was followed by the launching of the Faith and Globalisation Initiative with Yale University in the US, Durham University in the UK, and the National University of Singapore in Asia, to deliver a postgraduate programme in partnership with the Foundation.[208][209]
Blair's links with, and receipt of an undisclosed sum from, UI Energy Corporation, have also been subject to media comment in the UK.[210]
In July 2010 it was reported that his personal security guards claimed £250,000 a year in expenses from the tax payer, Foreign Secretary William Hague said; "we have to make sure that [Blair's security] is as cost-effective as possible, that it doesn't cost any more to the taxpayer than is absolutely necessary".[211]
In May 2007, Blair was invested as a paramount chief by the chiefs and people of the village of Mahera in Sierra Leone. The honour was bestowed upon him in recognition of the role played by his government in the Sierra Leone Civil War.[310]
On 22 May 2008, Blair received an honorary law doctorate from Queen's University Belfast, alongside Bertie Ahern, for distinction in public service and roles in the Northern Ireland peace process.[311]
On 13 January 2009, Blair was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.[312] Bush stated that Blair was given the award "in recognition of exemplary achievement and to convey the utmost esteem of the American people"[313] and cited Blair's support for the War on Terror and his role in achieving peace in Northern Ireland as two reasons for justifying his being presented with the award.[314]
On 16 February 2009, Blair was awarded the Dan David Prize by Tel Aviv University for "exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to areas in conflict". He was awarded the prize in May 2009.[315][316][317]
On 8 July 2010, Blair was awarded the Order of Freedom by President Fatmir Sejdiu of Kosovo.[318] As Blair is considered to have been instrumental in ending the conflict in Kosovo, some boys born in the country following the war have been given the name Toni or Tonibler.[319][320]
On 13 September 2010, Blair was awarded the Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[321] It was presented by former president Bill Clinton, and is awarded annually to "men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe".[321][322]
On 31 December 2021, it was announced that the Queen had appointed Blair a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG).[323][324] Blair had reportedly indicated when he left office that he did not want the traditional knighthood or peerage bestowed on former prime ministers.[325] A petition cited his role in the Iraq War as a reason to remove the knighthood and garnered more than one million signatures.[326]
He received his Garter insignia on 10 June 2022 from the Queen during an audience at Windsor Castle.[327]