Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair
(born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. On the day he resigned as Prime Minister and MP, he was appointed official Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Russia.
Tony Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election of July 1994 following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party adopted the term "New Labour", [1] abandoned policies it had held for decades, and moved towards the centre ground. [2] [3] Blair led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blair handed over control of interest rates to the Bank of England; introduced the minimum wage; signed the Belfast Agreement; introduced tuition fees; and established the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. In his first six years, Blair ordered British troops into battle five times—more than any other prime minister in history. [4]
Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister; the only person to have led the Labour Party to three consecutive general election victories; and the only Labour Prime Minister to serve consecutive terms, more than one of which was at least four years long. He was succeeded as Leader of the Labour Party on 24 June 2007 and as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 by Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer. [5]
In May 2008 Blair launched his Tony Blair Faith Foundation. [6] This was followed in July 2009 by the launching of the Faith and Globalisation Initiative
with Yale University in the USA, Durham University in the UK and National University of Singapore in Asia to deliver a postgraduate program in partnership with the Foundation. [7] [8]
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TONY BLAIR TICKETS
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Background and family life
Blair was born in
Edinburgh, Scotland
[9] on 6 May 1953,
[10] the second son of
Leo and Hazel Blair (
née
Corscadden). Leo Blair, the illegitimate
[11] son of two English actors, had been adopted as a baby by Glasgow shipyard worker James Blair and his wife, Mary. Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher and
Orangeman who moved to Glasgow in 1916 but returned to (and later died in)
Ballyshannon in 1923, where his wife, Sarah Margaret (née Lipsett), gave birth to Blair's mother, Hazel, above her family's
grocery shop.
[12] [13] The Lipsett family in Donegal supposedly originated with a German
Jewish immigrant to Ireland prior to the 18th century.
[14] George Corscadden was from a family of
Protestant farmers in
County Donegal, Ireland,
[15] who descended from
Scottish settlers who took their family name from
Garscadden, now part of
Glasgow.
Life as a child
Tony Blair has one elder brother,
Sir William Blair, a
High Court Judge, and a younger sister, Sarah. Tony Blair spent the first 19 months of his life at the family home in Paisley Terrace in the
Willowbrae area of Edinburgh. During this period, his father worked as a junior tax inspector whilst also studying for a law degree from the
University of Edinburgh.
In the 1950s, his family spent three and a half years living in
Adelaide, Australia, where his father was a lecturer in law at the
University of Adelaide.
[16] The Blairs lived close to the university, in the suburb of
Dulwich. The family returned to Britain in the late 1950s, living for a time with Hazel Blair's stepfather, William McClay, and her mother at their home in
Stepps, near Glasgow. He spent the remainder of his childhood in
Durham, England, where his father lectured at
Durham University.
Education
After attending Durham's
Chorister School from 1961 to 1966,
[17] Blair boarded at
Fettes College, an
independent school in Edinburgh, where he met
Charlie Falconer (a pupil at the rival
Edinburgh Academy), whom he later appointed
Lord Chancellor. He reportedly modelled himself on
Mick Jagger.
[18] His teachers were unimpressed with him; his biographer,
John Rentoul, reported that "All 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 was arrested at Fettes, having being mistaken for a burglar as he climbed into his dormitory using a ladder after having been out late.
[20]
After Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, where he attempted to find fame as a
rock music promoter before reading jurisprudence at
St John's College,
University of Oxford. As a student, he played
guitar and sang for a
rock band called
Ugly Rumours. During this time, he dated future
American Psycho
director
Mary Harron.
[21] He was influenced by fellow student and Anglican priest
Peter Thomson, who awakened within Blair a deep concern for religious faith and left-wing politics. Whilst he was at Oxford, Hazel Blair died of cancer, which greatly affected him. After graduating from Oxford in 1976 with a
Second Class Honours BA in Jurisprudence, Blair became a member of
Lincoln's Inn, enrolled as a pupil barrister, and met his future wife,
Cherie Booth (daughter of the actor
Tony Booth) at the
Chambers founded by
Derry Irvine (who was to be Blair's first Lord Chancellor),
11 King's Bench Walk Chambers. Rentoul records that, according to his lawyer friends, Blair was much less concerned about which party he was affiliated with than about his ambition of becoming
Prime Minister.
Marriage and children
Blair married Booth, a practising
Roman Catholic and future
Queen's Counsel, on 29 March 1980. They have four children:
Euan Anthony, Nicholas John, Kathryn Hazel, and Leo George. Leo was the first legitimate child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years—since Francis Russell was born to
Lord John Russell on 11 July 1849. Although the Blairs stated that they wished to shield their children from the media, their children's education was a cause of political controversy. All three attended the Roman Catholic
London Oratory School—criticised by left-wingers for its selection procedures—instead of a poorly performing
Roman Catholic school in Labour-controlled
Islington, where they then lived, in Richmond Avenue. There was further criticism when it was revealed that Euan received private coaching from staff from
Westminster School.
Early political career
Blair joined the
Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975. During the early 1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in
Hackney South and Shoreditch, where he aligned himself with the "
soft left" of the party. He unsuccessfully attempted to secure selection as a candidate for
Hackney Borough Council. Through his
father-in-law,
Tony Booth, he contacted Labour MP
Tom Pendry to ask for help in pursuing a Parliamentary career. Pendry gave him a tour of the House of Commons and advised him to stand for selection as a candidate in a forthcoming
by-election in the safe
Conservative seat of
Beaconsfield, where Pendry knew a senior member of the local party. Blair was chosen as the candidate; at the
Beaconsfield by-election, he won only 10% of the vote and lost his
deposit, but he impressed Labour Party leader
Michael Foot and acquired a profile within the party. In contrast to his later centrism, Blair described himself in this period as a
Socialist. A letter he wrote to Foot in July 1982, eventually published in June 2006, gives an indication of his outlook at this time.
[22]
In 1983, Blair found the newly created
constituency of Sedgefield, a notionally safe Labour seat near where he had grown up in
Durham. The branch had not made a nomination, and Blair visited them. Several sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were interested in securing selection to fight the seat. With the crucial support of
John Burton, Blair won their endorsement; at the last minute, he was added to the short list and won the selection over
Les Huckfield. Burton later became Blair's agent and one of his most trusted and longest-standing allies.
Blair's election literature in the
1983 UK general election endorsed left-wing policies that Labour advocated in the early 1980s. He called for Britain to leave the
EEC, though he had told his selection conference that he personally favoured continuing membership. He also supported
unilateral nuclear disarmament as a member of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Blair was helped on the campaign trail by
soap actress
Pat Phoenix, his father-in-law's girlfriend. Blair was elected as MP for Sedgefield despite the party's landslide defeat in the general election.
In his
maiden speech in the House of Commons on 6 July 1983, Blair stated, "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality."
[23] [24] The Labour Party is declared in its constitution to be a
democratic socialist party
[25] rather than a
social democratic party; Blair himself organised this declaration of Labour to be a
socialist party when he dealt with the change to the party's
Clause IV in their constitution.
In opposition
Once elected, Blair's ascent was rapid, and he received his first front-bench appointment in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman. In May 1985, he appeared on BBC's
Question Time, arguing that the Conservative Government's Public Order White Paper was a threat to civil liberties.
[26]
Blair demanded an inquiry into the
Bank of England's decision to rescue the collapsed
Johnson Matthey Bank in
October 1985 and embarrassed the government by finding a
European Economic Community report critical of British economic policy that had been countersigned by a member of the Conservative government. By this time, Blair was aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party (headed by leader
Neil Kinnock) and was promoted after the
1987 election to the shadow Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the
City of London. In 1987, he stood for election to the
Shadow Cabinet, receiving 77 votes.
After the
stock market crash of October 1987, Blair raised his profile further when he castigated City traders as "incompetent" and "morally dubious" and criticised poor service for small investors at the
London Stock Exchange. In 1988, Blair entered the
Shadow Cabinet as
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy, and the following year, he became Shadow Employment Secretary. In this post, he realised that the Labour Party's support for the emerging European "Social Charter" policies on
employment law meant dropping the party's traditional support for the "
closed shop" (i.e., compulsory membership of
trade unions). He announced this change in December 1989, outraging the left wing of the Labour Party. The young and telegenic Blair was given prominence by the party's
Director of Communications,
Peter Mandelson; he gave his first major platform speech at the 1990
Labour Party conference. Later, Blair would also work to modernise Labour's image and was responsible for developing the controversial
minimum wage policy.
Blair became
Shadow Home Secretary under
John Smith.
John Smith died suddenly in 1994 of a
heart attack. Blair beat
John Prescott and
Margaret Beckett in the
subsequent leadership election and became
Leader of the Opposition. As is customary for the holder of that office, Blair was appointed a
Privy Councillor.
Leader of the Labour Party
Blair announced at the end of his speech at the 1994 Labour Party conference that he intended to replace
Clause IV of the party's constitution with a new statement of aims and values. This involved the deletion of the party's stated commitment to "the
common ownership of the
means of production and exchange", which was widely interpreted as referring to wholesale
nationalisation.
[27] At a special conference in April 1995, the clause was replaced by a statement that the party is one of
democratic socialism.
Blair also revised party policy in a manner that enhanced the image of Labour as competent and modern, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish the party from its past. Although the transformation aroused much criticism (its alleged superficiality drawing fire both from political opponents and traditionalists within the rank and file of his own party), it was nevertheless successful in changing public perception. At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education, and education".
Aided by the unpopularity of
John Major's Conservative government (itself deeply divided over the
European Union), "New Labour" won a landslide victory in the
1997 general election, ending 18 years of
Conservative Party government, with the heaviest Conservative defeat since
1832.
[28]
Prime Minister
Blair became the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on
2 May 1997, serving concurrently as
First Lord of the Treasury,
Minister for the Civil Service and
Leader of the Labour Party. The 43-year old Blair became the youngest person to become Prime Minister since
Lord Liverpool in 1812, at the age of 42.
[29] With victories in 1997,
2001, and
2005, Blair was the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister, the only person to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories.
Domestic policy
Blair is both credited with and criticised for moving the Labour Party towards the
centre of British politics, using the term "
New Labour" to distinguish his pro-
market policies from the more
collectivist policies that the party had espoused in the past.
In domestic government policy, Blair significantly increased
public spending on health and education while also introducing controversial market-based reforms in these areas. Blair's tenure also saw the introduction of a
National Minimum Wage; tuition fees for higher education; and
constitutional reform, such as
devolution in Scotland and Wales. The British economy performed well, and Blair kept to Conservative commitments not to increase income tax—although he did introduce a large number of subtle tax increases, referred to as "stealth taxes" by his opponents.
Northern Ireland
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.
[30] [31] Following the
Omagh Bombing on 15 August 1998 by dissidents opposed to the peace process (which killed 29 people and wounded hundreds), Blair visited the
County Tyrone town and met with victims at
Belfast's
Royal Victoria Hospital.
[32]
War on Terror
From the start of the "
War on Terror" in 2001, Blair strongly supported
United States foreign policy, notably by participating in the invasions of
Afghanistan in 2001 and
Iraq in 2003. As a result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the circumstances in which it was decided upon—especially his claims that Iraq was developing
weapons of mass destruction, which have not been discovered in Iraq. Some people, including Nobel prizewinning playwright
Harold Pinter and former Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohammad, have accused Blair of
war crimes.
[33] [34]
For his unwavering support of the
United States government's
foreign policy, Mr. Blair was honoured with the
Congressional Gold Medal on 18 July 2003.
Relationship with Parliament
Blair changed Parliamentary procedures significantly. 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. This reform was said to have led to greater efficiency, but critics have noted that it is easier to prepare for one long set of questions than for two shorter sessions. In addition to PMQs, Blair held monthly press conferences at which he fielded questions from journalists.
[35] [36]
Other procedural reforms included changing the official times for Parliamentary sessions in order to have Parliament operate in a more businesslike manner.
Presidentialism
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.
[37] 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 state—which he was not.
[38]
Events prior to resignation
As the
casualties of the Iraq War continued to increase and criticism of the Iraq war and its handling mounted, Blair was accused of misleading Parliament,
[39] [40] [41] and his popularity dropped dramatically.
[42] [43] [44] The Labour party's overall majority in the
2005 general election was reduced to 66.
As a combined result of the so-called
Blair-Brown pact, the Iraq war, and low approval ratings, pressure built up within
[45] the Labour party for Blair to resign.
[46] [47] [48]
On 7 September 2006, following pressure from the Labour Party, Blair publicly stated he would step down as party leader by the time of the
Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference held 10–13 September 2007,
[49] having promised to serve a full term during the previous general election campaign.
On 10 May 2007, during a speech at the Trimdon Labour Club in his
Sedgefield constituency, Blair announced his intention to resign as both Labour Party leader and Prime Minister the following June. At a special party conference in
Manchester on 24 June 2007, he formally handed over the leadership of the Labour Party to
Gordon Brown, who had been
Chancellor of the Exchequer during all of Blair's ten years in office.
[50]
Blair tendered his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to the Queen on 27 June 2007, his successor Gordon Brown assuming office the same afternoon. He also resigned his seat in the House of Commons in the traditional form of accepting the Stewardship of the
Chiltern Hundreds to which he was appointed by Gordon Brown in one of the latter's last acts as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
[51] [52] As it is impossible to resign from the UK Parliament, this device is used for MPs wishing to step down.
[53]
The resulting
Sedgefield by-election was won by Labour's candidate,
Phil Wilson. Blair decided not to issue a list of
Resignation Honours, making him the first Prime Minister of the modern era not to do so.
[54]
Post-Prime Ministerial career
Diplomacy
On 27 June 2007, Blair officially resigned as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after ten years in office, and he was officially confirmed as Middle East
envoy for the
United Nations,
European Union, United States, and Russia.
[55] Blair originally indicated that he would retain his parliamentary seat after his resignation as Prime Minister came into effect; however, he resigned from the Commons on being confirmed for the Middle East role by taking up an
office for profit.
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".
[56] [57] In May 2008, Tony Blair announced a new plan for peace and for Palestinian rights, based heavily on the ideas of the
Peace Valley plan.
[58]
During the first nine days of the
2008–2009 Israel-Gaza conflict, Tony Blair spent Christmas and New Year's with his family and according to the
Daily Mail he was
spotted
at the opening of the
Armani store at
Knightsbridge..Aides insised that reports of him being on holiday were 'totally untrue'. He has, they said , been 'working tirelessly' behind the scenes 'since day one'. Since taking on the position of Middle East envoy, he is reported to be spending one week out every month in the Middle East. His spokesman was quoted as stating that, Mr Blair had been 'working the phones' constantly since Israel's ferocious bombardment of the Palastinian coastal enclave began.
[59]
Private sector
In January 2008, it was confirmed that Blair would be joining investment bank
JPMorgan Chase in a "senior advisory capacity"
[60] and that he would advise
Zurich Financial Services on
climate change. His combined earnings then reached over £7m a year.
[61]
Blair also gives lectures and earns up to US$250,000 for a 90-minute speech.
[62] [63] Yale University announced on 7 March 2008 that Blair will teach a course on issues of faith and globalisation at the Yale Schools of
Management and
Divinity as a
Howland distinguished fellow during the 2008–09 academic year.
[64]
Politics
The media have speculated that Blair is planning to become the first
President of the European Council, a post created in the
Treaty of Lisbon that would come into force in 2009 if successfully ratified.
Blair has been the most common name connected with the post. Touted as far back as 2002, rumours have re-emerged since his resignation.
[65] In June 2007, French president
Nicolas Sarkozy was the first leader to propose that Blair be the first president,
[66] support that was reiterated in October 2007 following an agreement on the
Treaty of Lisbon.
Gordon Brown, Blair's successor, added his support, but noted that it was premature to discuss candidates before the treaty was approved. A spokesman for Tony Blair did not rule out Blair's accepting the post, saying he was concentrating on his current role in the Middle East. Some believe he is unlikely to take the position, as it comes with few powers.
[67] Blair was later invited to speak on European issues at a rally of Sarkozy's party, the
Union for a Popular Movement, on 12 January 2008—which fuelled speculation further.
[68] [69]
He is intelligent, he is brave and he is a friend. We need him in Europe. How can we govern a continent of 450 million people if the President changes every six months and has to run his own country at the same time? I want a President chosen from the top — not a compromise candidate — who will serve for two and a half years.
—French President Nicolas Sarkozy, January 2008, "ref">[70]''
Charity
On 14 November 2007, Blair launched the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, which aims to "increase childhood participation in sports activities, especially in the North East of England, where a larger proportion of children are socially excluded, and to promote overall health and prevent childhood obesity."
[71] On 30 May 2008, Blair launched the
Tony Blair Faith Foundation as a vehicle for encouraging different faiths to join together in promoting respect and understanding, as well as working to tackle poverty. Reflecting Blair's own faith but not dedicated to any particular religion, the Foundation aims to "show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world".
[72]
Honours
In May 2007, before his resignation, it was reported
[73] that Blair would be offered a Knighthood in the
Order of the Thistle, rather than the
Order of the Garter, due to his Scottish connections. No such move has been reported since, and on
St Andrew's Day, the Queen appointed two men to the only openings in the limited Order.
thumb by President George W. Bush.
On 22 May 2008, Blair received an honorary law doctorate from
Queen's University Belfast, alongside former
taoiseach Bertie Ahern, for distinction in public service and roles in the
Northern Ireland peace process.
[74]
On 13 January 2009, Blair was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
George W. Bush. Bush stated that Blair was given the award "in recognition of exemplary achievement and to convey the utmost esteem of the American people"
[75] 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.
[76] [77]
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.
[78] [79]
Relationship with media
Rupert Murdoch
Tony Blair's close relationship with
Rupert Murdoch, and the reciprocated unprecedented support which he received from Murdoch's globally influential
News Corporation media empire, has been the subject of much criticism.
[80] [81] In 1995, while leader of the Opposition, Blair disclosed in the Commons register of interests that he was a guest of Murdoch when he flew to meet him in
Hayman Island.
[82]
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
.
[83]
The response includes contacts "clearly of an official nature" in the specified period, but excludes contacts "not clearly of an official nature."
[84] No details were given of what 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 the 20 March US and UK invasion, and on 29 January, 25 April and 3 October 2004. Between January 2003 and February 2004, Mr Blair had three meetings with Richard Desmond; on 29 January and 3 September 2003 and 23 February 2004.
[85] [86]
The information was disclosed after a three and a half year battle by the
Lib Dem Lord Avebury.
Lord Avebury's initial October 2003 information request was dismissed by then leader of the Lords,
Baroness Amos.
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.
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."
Media portrayal
Tony Blair is acknowledged by most to be a highly skilful media performer who comes over as charismatic, informal and articulate. A few months after becoming Prime Minister he 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".
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. Campbell acquired a reputation as a sinister and
Machiavellian figure, and both Blair and Campbell have frequently been criticised or
satirised for their allegedly excessive use of "spin" and
news management techniques (see below under
Criticism
).
Criticism
Blair was criticised, including by former members of his own cabinet, for his solid stance alongside U.S. President
George W. Bush on
Middle East policy, in particular over the
Iraq War, the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict and the
Israel/Palestine issue.
[87]
He is accused of having eroded
civil liberties with
authoriarian legislation: increasing police powers by needlessly adding to the number of
arrestable offences, compulsory
DNA recording and the use of dispersal orders.
[88]
Blair was accused of excessive reliance on
spin, labelled by his predecessor
John Major "the porn of politics".
[89] He is the first British Prime Minister to have been formally questioned by police, though not
under caution, while still in office.
[90]
Relationship with Gordon Brown
After the death of
John Smith in 1994, Blair and his close colleague
Gordon Brown (they shared an office at the
House of Commons) were both seen as possible candidates for the party leadership. They agreed not to stand against each other, it is said, as part of a supposed Blair-Brown pact. The latter, who considered himself senior of the two, understood Blair would give way to him: opinion polls soon indicated, however, that Blair appeared to enjoy greater support among voters.
[91] Their relationship in power became so turbulent that the
deputy prime minister John Prescott often, it was reported, had to act as "marriage guidance counsellor".
[92]
Religious faith
On 22 December 2007, it was disclosed that Blair had converted to the
Roman Catholic faith, and that it was "a private matter".
[93] [94] He had informed
Pope Benedict XVI on 23 June 2007 that he wanted to become Roman Catholic. The Pope and his advisors criticised some of Blair's political actions, but followed up with a reportedly unprecedented red-carpet welcome that included
Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, who would be responsible for Blair's
Catholic instruction.
[95]
Blair had previously rarely discussed his
religious faith in public, but had often been identified as an
Anglo-Catholic—that is, a member of the
high church branch of the
Church of England, sympathetic to the beliefs and practices of the
Roman Catholic Church. His wife
Cherie Booth is a practising Roman Catholic, and Blair had attended Catholic Masses at
Westminster Cathedral, with his family at
Number 10 Downing Street, and also while on holiday in Italy. During one such visit to that country, on 22 February 2003, when he met with
Pope John Paul II, Blair and his wife stayed at the
Irish College in Rome [96]. In 1996, he was reprimanded by
Basil Cardinal Hume for receiving
Holy Communion at Mass despite not being a Roman Catholic, a contravention of Catholic Canon Law.
[97]
In an interview with
Michael Parkinson broadcast on
ITV1 on 4 March 2006, Blair referred to the role of his
Christian faith in his decision to go to war in Iraq, stating that he had
prayed about the issue, and saying that God would judge him for his decision:
[98] "I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people … and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."
A longer exploration of his faith can be found in an interview with
Third Way Magazine
. He says there that "I was brought up as [a Christian], but I was not in any real sense a practising one until I went to Oxford. There was an Australian priest at the same college as me who got me interested again. In a sense, it was a rediscovery of religion as something living, that was about the world around me rather than some sort of special one-to-one relationship with a remote Being on high. Suddenly I began to see its social relevance. I began to make sense of the world".
[99] The death of Blair's mother Hazel in 1975 is said to have greatly affected him and prompted his renewed spiritual commitment whilst at Oxford.
These comments prompted a number of questions on Blair's faith. At one point
Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of strategy and communications, intervened in an interview, preventing the Prime Minister from answering a question about his Christianity, explaining, "We don't do God".
[100]
Cherie Blair's friend and "spiritual guru"
Carole Caplin is credited with introducing her and her husband to various
New Age symbols and beliefs, including "magic pendants" known as "BioElectric Shields".
[101] The most controversial of the Blairs' New Age practices occurred when on holiday in Mexico. The couple, wearing only bathing costumes, took part in a rebirthing procedure that involved smearing mud and fruit over each others' bodies while sitting in a steam bath.
[102]
Later on, Blair questioned the Pope's attitude towards homosexuality, arguing that religious leaders must start "rethinking" the issue.
[103] He was later rebuked by
Vincent Nichols, the new archbishop of Westminster, who said that Catholic thinking was 'rather different' from the kind promoted by the former prime minister.
[104]
On January 14th, 2009 Blair, upon a visit to the British Embassy in Washington D.C, USA, described, in the guest book, his home as being 'Jerusalem'.
[105] This was followed shortly after, on the occasion of his addressing of the National Prayer Breakfast, by his discussion of the issue of religion in the world and the Middle East peace process in his address and how he spends so much of his time in the Holy Land and in the Holy City. He reported his Palestianian guide as bemoaning the fate of his nation looking to heaven and saying “Moses, Jesus, Mohammed: why did they all have to come here?” For Blair the Holy City is "a good place to reflect on religion: a source of so much inspiration; an excuse for so much evil."
[106]
Policies
The Labour Party is historically a
socialist political party. In 2001, Tony Blair said, "We are a
left of centre party, pursuing economic prosperity and social justice as partners and not as opposites".
[107]
Blair has rarely applied such labels to himself, but he promised before the 1997 election that New Labour would govern "from the radical centre", and according to one lifelong Labour Party member, has always described himself as a
social democrat.
[108] However, Labour Party backbenchers and other left wing critics typically place Blair to the
right of centre.
[109] A
YouGov opinion poll in 2005 also found that a small majority of British voters, including many New Labour supporters, place Blair on the right of the political spectrum.
[110] [111] The
Financial Times
on the other hand has argued that Blair is not
conservative, but instead a
populist.
[112] Curiously though, and perhaps contradictorily, in the new
Clause 4 of the Labour Party's constitution written by Blair personally, the party is defined a "Democratic Socialist" party.
Critics and admirers tend to agree that Blair's electoral success was based on his ability to occupy the centre ground and appeal to voters across the political spectrum, to the extent that he has been fundamentally at odds with traditional Labour Party values.
[113] Some left wing critics have argued that Blair has overseen the final stage of a long term shift of the Labour Party to the right, and that very little now remains of a Labour Left.
[114] [115] There is also evidence that Blair's long term dominance of the centre has forced his Conservative opponents to shift a long distance to the left, in order to challenge his
hegemony there.
[116] [117]
Blair has raised taxes (but did not increase income tax for high-earners); introduced a minimum wage and some new employment rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher's trade union legislation); 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.
[118]
Environmental record
Tony Blair has criticised other governments for not doing enough to solve global
climate change. In 1997 Tony Blair in a visit to the United States made a comment on "great industrialised nations" that fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Again in 2003 Mr. Blair went before the
United States Congress and said that climate change "cannot be ignored", insisting "we need to go beyond even
Kyoto."
[119] His record at home tends to say something different. Tony Blair and his party have promised a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide but during his term the emissions rose. The Labour Party also claimed that by 2010 10% of the energy would come from renewable resources but in fact only 3% currently does.
[120]
In 2000 Mr. Blair "flagged up" 100 million euros for green policies and urged environmentalists and businesses to work together.
[121]
Personal health
Blair suffered from chest pains on Sunday 19 October 2003 and underwent a
cardioversion at
Hammersmith Hospital [122].
Foreign policy
Relationship with the United States
Along with enjoying a close relationship with
Bill Clinton during the latter's time in office, Blair formed a strong political alliance with
George W. Bush, particularly in the area of foreign policy. At one point,
Nelson Mandela described Blair as "the U.S. foreign minister".
[123] Blair has also often openly been referred to as "Bush's poodle".
[124] 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
U.S. government 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".
[125]
For his part, Bush lauded Blair and the UK. In his post-
11 September speech, for example, he stated that "America has no truer friend than Great Britain".
[126]
The alliance between Bush and Blair seriously damaged Blair's standing in the eyes of many
UK citizens.
[127] Blair argued it is in Britain's interest to "protect and strengthen the bond" with the United States regardless of who is in the White House.
[128] However, a perception of one-sided compromising personal and political closeness led to serious discussion of the term "Poodle-ism" in the UK media, to describe the "
special relationship" of the UK government and Prime Minister with the US White House and President.
[129] A revealing conversation between Bush and Blair, with the former addressing the latter as "Yo, Blair" was recorded when they did not know a mike was live at the G8 conference in Russia in 2006.
[130]
Middle East policy and links with Israel
According to comments in the book,
Blair
, written by
Anthony Seldon, Blair had a deep feeling for Israel, born in part from his faith.
[131] Blair has been a long time member of the Pro-Israel lobby group
Labour Friends of Israel [132] [133]
In 1994, Blair met
Michael Levy, later Lord Levy, a
pop music mogul and fundraiser.
[134] Blair and Levy soon became close friends and
tennis partners. Levy ran the Labour Leader's Office Fund to finance Blair's campaign before the 1997 General Election and raised £12m towards Labour’s landslide victory, Levy was rewarded by Blair with a
peerage, and in 2002, just prior to the Iraq War, Blair appointed Levy as his personal envoy to the Middle East. Levy praised Blair for his 'solid and committed support of the State of Israel'.
[135] [136] Tam Dalyell, while
Father of the House of Commons, suggested in 2003 that Blair's foreign policy decisions were unduly influenced by a
cabal of Jewish advisers, including Levy and Peter Mandelson.
[137] In response Mandelson said: "Apart from the fact that I am
not actually Jewish, I wear my father's parentage with pride."
[138]
Blair, on coming to office, had been 'cool towards the right-wing
Netanyahu government'.
[139] But with the election in 1999 of an
Israeli Labour prime minister
Ehud Barak, with whom Blair 'forged a close relationship', he became 'much more sympathetic to Israel, guided in part by
Manning's enthusiasm for generating momentum in the
peace process'.
From 2001 Blair also 'worked hard at building a relationship, with some success',
with Barak's successor,
Ariel Sharon. He also 'responded positively to
Arafat, whom he had met thirteen times since becoming prime minister', 'regarding him as essential to future negotiations'.
'By April 2002, Blair believed he was making progress.
Bush's statement of 4 April, in which he urged Sharon to withdraw from Palestinian cities recently occupied and halt further incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas, proved the highpoint of Bush's toughness with the Israeli Prime Minister.'
[140] 'By the beginning of 2003, Blair redoubled his efforts to shift Bush on the Middle East policy process', which 'finally paid off when, on 14 March, Bush announced that the road map would be published as soon as
Abu Mazen, the new Palestinian Prime Minister, was installed. Palestinian independence by 2005, to which Bush secured Sharon's agreement, was the goal.'
[141] According to
Anthony Seldon: 'None of these proposals would have been finalised, least of all so quickly, without Blair's pressing.'
In 2004, 50 former diplomats, including ambassadors to
Baghdad and
Tel Aviv, stated they had 'watched with deepening concern' at Britain following the U.S. into war in Iraq in 2003 also stating, 'We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment,' and asked Blair to exert 'real influence as a loyal ally'. The ambassadors also accused the allies of having 'no effective plan' for the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and the apparent disregard for the lives of Iraqi civilians. The diplomats also criticised Blair for his support for the
road map which included the retaining of
settlements on the
West Bank stating, 'Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land'.
[142]
In 2006 Blair was criticised for his failure to immediately call for a ceasefire in the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, with members of his
cabinet openly criticising Israel.
Jack Straw, the
Leader of the House of Commons and former
Foreign Secretary stated that Israel's actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon. Kim Howells, a minister in the Foreign Office, stated that it was 'very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel'; 'These are not surgical strikes but have instead caused death and misery amongst innocent civilians.'.
The Observer
newspaper claimed that at a cabinet meeting before Blair left for a summit with Bush on 28 July 2006, a significant number of ministers pressured Blair to publicly criticise Israel over the scale of deaths and destruction in Lebanon. In an interview with the BBC regarding the situation, Blair was quoted as saying, "Let us make sure with urgency we can stop this situation which is killing innocent people. Yet there had to be a long-term solution".
[143]
Relationship with Labour Party
Blair's apparent refusal to set a date for his departure was criticised by the British press and Members of Parliament. It has been reported that a number of cabinet ministers believed that Blair's timely departure from office would be required to be able to win a fourth election.
[ Some ministers viewed Blair's announcement of policy initiatives in September 2006 as an attempt to draw attention away from these issues. [144] Upon his return from his holiday in the West Indies he announced that all the speculation about his leaving must stop. This stirred not only his traditional critics but also traditional party loyalists.
]
The government under Blair introduced social policies supported by the left of the Labour Party, such as the minimum wage and measures to reduce child poverty, he was seen by some as being to the right of the party on economic and management issues.
Blair forged friendships with several conservative European leaders, including Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, [145] Angela Merkel of Germany [146] and more recently Nicolas Sarkozy of France. [147] This earned him criticism from trade union leaders within the Labour Party, most notably over the political alliance with Berlusconi who was engaged in disputes with Italian trade unions.
Portrayals and cameo appearances
Appearances
Blair made an animated cameo appearance as himself in The Simpsons
episode, "The Regina Monologues" (2003). [148] He has also appeared himself at the end of the first episode of The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, a British TV series about an unknown housewife becoming Prime Minister. On 14 March 2007, Blair appeared as a celebrity judge on Masterchef goes Large
after contestants had to prepare a three course meal in the Downing Street kitchens for Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern [149]. On 16 March 2007, in a comedy sketch with Catherine Tate, who appeared in the guise of her character Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show
. The sketch was made for the BBC Red Nose Day fundraising programme of 2007. During the sketch, Blair used Lauren's catchphrase "Am I bovvered?". [150]
Portrayals
Michael Sheen has portrayed Blair twice, in the films The Deal
(2003) and The Queen
(2006), and shall reprise the role once more in The Special Relationship
. Blair was portrayed by Robert Lindsay in the TV programme A Very Social Secretary
; he reprised the role in The Trial of Tony Blair
. He was also portrayed by James Larkin in The Government Inspector
(2005), and by Ioan Gruffudd in W.
(2008).
Blair in fiction and satire
The Ghost
When Blair resigned as Prime Minister, Robert Harris, a former Fleet Street political editor, dropped his other work to write The Ghost
. The CIA-influenced British prime minister in the book is said to be a thinly disguised version of Blair. [151]
In November 2007 it was it was announced that Roman Polanski was to direct the film version of the novel, and would be writing the script with Harris. In 2009 the film was still in production and the release date unknown. [152]
Titles and honours
Styles from 1983 election
- Mr Anthony Charles Lynton Blair MP (1983–1994)
- The Rt Hon Anthony Charles Lynton Blair MP (1994–2007)
- The Rt Hon Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (2007–)
Honours
- Privy Councillor (1994)
- Congressional Gold Medal [153]
- Presidential Medal of Freedom [154]
| Political offices
|
Preceded by
Unknown
| Department of Trade and Industry
1987–1988
| Succeeded by
Unknown
|
Preceded by
John Prescott
| Shadow Secretary of State for Energy
1988–1989
| Succeeded by
Frank Dobson
|
Preceded by
Michael Meacher
| Department for Work and Pensions
1989–1992
|
Preceded by
Roy Hattersley
| Shadow Home Secretary
1992–1994
| Succeeded by
Jack Straw
|
Preceded by
Margaret Beckett
| Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)
1994–1997
| Succeeded by
John Major
|
Preceded by
John Major
| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1997–2007
| Succeeded by
Gordon Brown
|
Preceded by
Jean-Claude Juncker
| President of the European Council
2005
| Succeeded by
Wolfgang Schüssel
|
| Party political offices
|
Preceded by
Margaret Beckett
| Labour Party (UK)#Leaders of the Labour Party
1994–2007
| Succeeded by
Gordon Brown
|
| Diplomatic posts
|
Preceded by
Bill Clinton
| G8
1998
| Succeeded by
Gerhard Schröder
|
Preceded by
George W. Bush
| G8
2005
| Succeeded by
Vladimir Putin
|
| Assembly seats}}
|
Preceded by
Constituency re-established
| Member of Parliament for Sedgefield (UK Parliament constituency)
United Kingdom general election, 1983
| Succeeded by
Phil Wilson (British politician)
|
Preceded by
Terry Davis (politician)
| List of Stewards of the Chiltern Hundreds
2007–2008
| Succeeded by
David Davis (British politician)
|
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