Prime Minister of Great Britain / Political Figure

Born: 6 May 1953

Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
Best known as:
British prime minister, 1997-2007
Name at birth: Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
Tony Blair became the youngest British prime minister of the 20th century when he took
office in 1997. Tony Blair was born in Scotland but spent much of his childhood in
Durham, England. He studied law at Oxford and then practiced law until 1983, when he
was elected as member of Parliament from Sedgefield. Blair was a member of the
Labour Party, which at the time was dominated politically by the Conservative Party
of Margaret Thatcher. Blair was soon a rising star of what became known as the "new
Labour" movement, with positions more centrist on fiscal affairs and social issues like
crime. He became leader of the Labour Party in 1994, and three years later was named
prime minister, replacing John Major, when Labour won a Parliamentary majority. Tony
Blair was 44, making him the youngest British prime minister since Lord Liverpool in
1812. (Blair was often compared with the sitting U.S. president, Bill Clinton, who was 46
when he took office in 1993.) Blair was re-elected in Parliamentary elections in 2001
and 2005. He stepped down as the prime minister on 27 June 2007 and was succeeded
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

Relationship with Parliament
One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the then twice-weekly 15-minute
sessions of Prime Minister's Questions held on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a single
30-minute session on Wednesdays. In addition to PMQs, Blair held monthly press
conferences at which he fielded questions from journalists
[51][52]
and from 2002
broke precedent by agreeing to give evidence twice yearly before the most senior
Commons select committee, the Liaison Committee.
[53]
Blair was sometimes perceived
as paying insufficient attention both to the views of his own Cabinet colleagues and to
those of the House of Commons.
[54]
His style was sometimes criticised as not that of a
prime minister and head of government, which he was, but of a president and head of
statewhich he was not.
[55]
Blair was accused of excessive reliance on spin.
[56]
He is
the first British Prime Minister to have been formally questioned by police, though not
under caution, while still
In his first six years in office Blair ordered British troops into battle five times, more than
any other prime minister in British history. This included Iraq in
both 1998 and 2003; Kosovo (1999); Sierra Leone (2000) and Afghanistan (2001).
[37]
His contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping to
negotiate the Good Friday Agreement (after 30 years of conflict) was widely
recognised.
[34][35]
Following the Omagh Bombing on 15 August 1998, by members of
the Real IRA opposed to the peace process, which killed 29 people and wounded
hundreds, Blair visited the County Tyrone town and met with victims at Royal Victoria
Hospital, Belfast.
[36]
Blair has criticised other governments for not doing enough to solve global climate
change. In a 1997 visit to the United States, he made a comment on "great
industrialised nations" that fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Again in 2003,
Blair went before the United States Congressand said that climate change "cannot be
ignored", insisting "we need to go beyond even Kyoto."
[97]
Blair and his party promised a
20% reduction in carbon dioxide.
[98]
The Labour Party also claimed that by 2010 10% of
the energy would come from renewable resources; however, only 3% currently does.
[99]
Relationship with the United States
Along with enjoying a close relationship with Bill Clinton, Blair formed a strong political
alliance with George W. Bush, particularly in the area of foreign policy. Critics of this
relationship have often referred to Blair as "Bush's poodle".
[104]
Kendall Myers, a senior
analyst at the State Department, reportedly said that he felt "a little ashamed" of Bush's
treatment of the Prime Minister and that his attempts to influence US policy were
typically ignored: "It was a done deal from the beginning, it was a one-sided relationship
that was entered into with open eyes... There was nothing, no payback, no sense of
reciprocity".
[105]

In 2000 Blair "flagged up" 100 million euros for green policies and urged
environmentalists and businesses to work together.
[100]

Blair forged friendships with several conservative European leaders, including Silvio
Berlusconi of Italy,
[101]
Angela Merkel of Germany
[102]
and more recently Nicolas
Sarkozy of France.
[103]
Blair had a deep feeling for Israel, born in part from his faith.
[111]
Blair has been a
longtime member of the pro-Israel lobby group Labour Friends of Israel.
[112]
Syria and Libya
A Freedom of Information request by The Sunday Times in 2012 revealed that Blair's
government considered knighting Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. The documents
also showed that Blair was willing to appear alongside Assad at a joint press conference
even though the Syrians would probably have settled for a farewell handshake for the
cameras; British officials sought to manipulate the media to portray Assad in a
favourable light; and Blair's aides tried to help Assad's "photogenic" wife boost her
profile.
Blair had been on friendly terms with Colonel Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, when
sanctions imposed on the country were lifted by United States and United
Kingdom.
[122][123]
Even after the Libyan civil war in 2011, he said he had no regrets
about his close relationship with the late Libyan leader.
[124]
During Blair's
premiership, MI6 rendered Abdel Hakim Belhaj to the Gaddafi regime in 2004, though
Blair later claimed he had "no recollection" of the incident.
[125]
During his time as prime minister, Blair raised taxes; introduced a National Minimum
Wage and some new employment rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher's anti-trade
union legislation
[78]
); introduced significant constitutional reforms; promoted new rights
for gay people in the Civil Partnership Act 2004; and signed treaties integrating Britain
more closely with the EU. He introduced substantial market-based reforms in the
education and health sectors; introduced student tuition fees; sought to reduce certain
categories of welfare payments, and introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card
legislation. Under Blair's government the amount of new legislation increased
[79]
which
attracted criticism.
[80]
Blair increased police powers by adding to the number of
arrestable offences, compulsory DNA recording and the use of dispersal orders.
[81]