TonyBlair

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The Right Honourable

Tony Blair

Blair in 2014

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

Position established

Succeeded by

Position abolished

Leader of the Opposition

In office
21 July 1994 2 May 1997

Monarch

Elizabeth II

Prime Minister

John Major

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 Home Secretary

In office
24 July 1992 24 October 1994

Leader

John Smith
Margaret Beckett (Acting)

Himself
Preceded by

Roy Hattersley

Succeeded by

Jack Straw

Shadow Secretary of State for Employment

In office
2 November 1989 24 July 1992
Leader

Neil Kinnock

Preceded by

Michael Meacher

Succeeded by

Frank Dobson
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy
In office
23 November 1988 2 November 1989

Leader

Neil Kinnock

Preceded by

John Prescott

Succeeded by

Frank Dobson
Shadow Minister for Trade
In office
13 July 1987 23 November 1988

Leader

Neil Kinnock

Preceded by

Bryan Gould

Succeeded by

Robin Cook
Member of Parliament
for Sedgefield
In office
9 June 1983 27 June 2007

Preceded by

David Reed[a]

Succeeded by

Phil Wilson
Personal details

Born

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair

6 May 1953 (age 63)
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Political party

Labour

Spouse(s)

Cherie Booth (m. 1980)

Children

Euan
Kathryn
Nicky
Leo

Education
Chorister School
Fettes College
Alma mater
St John's College, Oxford
Inns of Court School of Law
Religion
Roman Catholic (Since 2007)

prev. Anglican

Signature

Website

Official website

a. ^ Electorate abolished on 28 February 1974, and reconstituted on 8

June 1983.

Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served
as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and the Leader of
the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. Together with United States President George W.
Bush in 2003, he initiated the Iraq War with the invasion of Iraq, an act which remains
highly controversial.[1][2]
From 1983 to 2007, Blair was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield and was elected
Labour Party leader in July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John
Smith. Under Blair's leadership, the party used the phrase "New Labour", to distance it from
previous Labour policies and the traditional conception of socialism. Blair declared support
for a new conception that he referred to as "social-ism", involving politics that recognised
individuals as socially interdependent, and advocated social justice, cohesion, equal worth
of each citizen, and equal opportunity.[3] Critics of Blair denounced him for having the
Labour Party abandon genuine socialism and accepting capitalism.[4] Supporters, including
the party's public opinion pollster Philip Gould, stated that after four consecutive general
election defeats, the Labour Party had to demonstrate that it had made a decisive break
from its left-wing past, in order to win an election again. [5]
In May 1997, the Labour Party won a landslide general election victory, the largest in its
history, allowing Blair, at 43 years old, to become the youngest Prime Minister since Lord
Liverpool in 1812. In September 1997, Blair attained early personal popularity, receiving a
93% public approval rating, after his public response to the death of Diana, Princess of

Wales.[6][7][8] The Labour Party went on to win two more elections under his leadership:
in 2001, in which it won another landslide victory, and in 2005, with a reduced majority. In
the first years of the New Labour government, Blair's government introduced the National
Minimum Wage Act, Human Rights Act, and Freedom of Information Act. Blair's
government also carried out the devolution, the establishing of the Scottish Parliament,
the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly, thus fulfilling four of
the promises in its 1997 manifesto. In Northern Ireland, Blair was involved in the
1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Blair ardently supported the foreign policy of the Bush administration, and ensured that
British Armed Forces participated in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and, more
controversially, the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair has faced strong criticism for his role in the
invasion of Iraq, including calls for having him tried for war crimes and waging a war of
aggression.[1] In 2016 the Iraq Inquiry strongly criticised his actions and described the
invasion of Iraq as unjustified and unnecessary.
Blair was succeeded as the leader of the Labour Party on 24 June 2007, and as Prime
Minister on 27 June 2007 byGordon Brown.[9] On the day that Blair resigned as Prime
Minister, he was appointed the official Special Envoy of theQuartet on the Middle East, an
office which he held until 27 May 2015.[10][11] He now runs a consultancy business and has
set up various foundations in his own name, including the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.[12]
Contents
[hide]

1Early life
1.1Education

2Early political career

o

2.1Leadership roles

2.2Opposition Leader

3Prime Minister
o

3.1Northern Ireland

3.2Military intervention and the War on Terror

3.3Relationship with Parliament

3.4Events before resignation

4Policies
o

4.1Social reforms

4.2Environmental record

4.3Foreign policy

4.3.1Middle East policy and Israel links

4.3.2Syria and Libya

5Relationship with media

o

5.1Rupert Murdoch

5.2Contacts with UK media proprietors

5.3Media portrayal

6Relationship with Labour Party

o

7Post-premiership (since 2007)

o

7.1Diplomacy

7.2Private sector

7.3Tony Blair Associates

7.4European Council president speculation

7.5Charity

7.6Memoirs

7.7Accusations of war crimes

7.8Response to the Iraq Inquiry

8Personal life
o

8.1Family

8.2Wealth

8.3Religious faith

8.4Extramarital affair allegations

6.1Gordon Brown

9Portrayals and cameo appearances

o

9.1Appearances

9.2Portrayals

9.3Blair in fiction and satire

10Titles and honours

10.1Styles since the 1983 election

10.2Appointments

10.3Honours

11Works

12See also

13Notes

14Further reading

15Miscellany

16External links

Earlylife
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland,[13] on 6 May 1953,[14][15] the
second son of Leo and Hazel (ne Corscadden) Blair.[citation needed] Leo Blair, the illegitimate son
of two entertainers, had been adopted as a baby by Glasgow shipyard worker James Blair
and his wife, Mary.[16] 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, County Donegal in 1923, where his wife, Sarah Margaret (ne Lipsett),
gave birth to Blair's mother, Hazel, above the family's grocery shop.[17][18]
Blair has one elder brother, Sir William Blair, a High Court judge, and a younger sister,
Sarah. 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.[13]
In the 1950s, his family spent three and a half years in Adelaide, South Australia, where his
father was a lecturer in law at the University of Adelaide.[19] The Blairs lived close to the
university, in the suburb of Dulwich. The family returned to the UK in the late 1950s, living
for a time with Hazel's mother and stepfather (William McClay) at their home in Stepps,
near Glasgow. He spent the remainder of his childhood in Durham, England, where his
father Leo lectured at Durham University.[20]

Education
After attending the Chorister School in Durham from 1961 to 1966,[21] Blair boarded
at Fettes College, a prestigious independent school in Edinburgh, during which time he
met Charlie Falconer (a pupil at the rival Edinburgh Academy), whom he later
appointed Lord Chancellor. Blair reportedly modelled himself on Mick Jagger.[22] 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." [23]
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, at theUniversity of Oxford.
[24]
As a student, he played guitar and sang in a rock band called Ugly Rumours,[25] and
performed some stand-up comedy, including parodyingJames T. Kirk as a character
named Captain Kink.[26]
He was influenced by fellow student and Anglican priest Peter Thomson, who awakened
his religious faith and left-wing politics. While Blair was at Oxford, his mother Hazel died of

cancer, which greatly affected him. After graduating from Oxford in 1975 with a SecondClass Honours B.A. 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 law chambers founded byDerry Irvine (who was to be Blair's first Lord Chancellor), 11
King's Bench Walk Chambers.

Earlypoliticalcareer
Blair joined the Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975. In 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 put himself forward as a candidate for
the Hackney council elections of 1982 in Queensbridge ward, a safe Labour area, but was
not selected.[27]
In 1982, Blair was selected as the Labour candidate in the safe Conservative seat
of Beaconsfield, where there was a forthcoming by-election.[28] Although Blair lost
the Beaconsfield by-election and Labour's share of the vote fell 10 percentage points, he
acquired a profile within the party.[citation needed] In contrast to his latercentrism, Blair made it clear
in a letter he wrote to Labour leader Michael Foot in July 1982 (published in 2006) that he
had "come to Socialism through Marxism" and considered himself on the left. [29] Like Tony
Benn, Blair believed that "Labour right" was bankrupt: [30] "Socialism ultimately must appeal
to the better minds of the people. You cannot do that if you are tainted overmuch with a
pragmatic period in power."[29][30] Yet, he saw the hard left as no better, saying:
There is an arrogance and self-righteousness about many of the groups on the far left
which is deeply unattractive to the ordinary would-be member... There's too much mixing
only with people [with] whom they agree.[29][30]
With a general election due, Blair had not been selected as a candidate anywhere. He was
invited to stand again in Beaconsfield, and was initially inclined to agree but was advised by
his head of chambers Derry Irvine to find somewhere else which might be winnable. [31] The
situation was complicated by the fact that Labour was fighting a legal action against
planned boundary changes, and had selected candidates on the basis of previous
boundaries. When the legal challenge failed, the party had to rerun all selections on the
new boundaries; most were based on existing seats, but unusually in County Durham a
new Sedgefield constituency had been created out of Labour-voting areas which had no
obvious predecessor seat.[32]
The selection for Sedgefield did not begin until after the 1983 election was called. Blair's
initial inquiries discovered that the left was trying to arrange the selection for Les Huckfield,
sitting MP for Nuneaton who was trying elsewhere; several sitting MPs displaced by
boundary changes were also interested in it. When he discovered the Trimdon branch had
not yet made a nomination, Blair visited them and won the support of the branch
secretary John Burton, and with Burton's help was nominated by the branch. At the last
minute, he was added to the shortlist and won the selection over Huckfield. It was the last
candidate selection made by Labour before the election, and was made after the Labour
Party had issued biographies of all its candidates ("Labour's Election Who's Who"). [33]
John Burton became Blair's election agent and one of his most trusted and longeststanding allies.[34] Blair's election literature in the 1983 UK general electionendorsed leftwing policies that Labour advocated in the early 1980s.[citation needed] He called for Britain to
leave the EEC[35] as early as the 1970s,[36] though he had told his selection conference that
he personally favoured continuing membership[citation needed] and voted "Yes" in the 1975
referendum on the subject. He opposed the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in 1986 but
supported the ERM by 1989.[37] He was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament, despite never strongly being in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament.
[38]
Blair was helped on the campaign trail by soap opera actress Pat Phoenix, his father-inlaw's girlfriend. Blair was elected as MP for Sedgefield despite the party's landslide defeat
in the general election.[citation needed]

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." [39]
Once elected, Blair's political ascent was rapid. He received his first frontbench 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.[40]
Blair demanded an inquiry into the Bank of England's decision to rescue the
collapsed Johnson Matthey Bank in October 1985. 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.[citation needed]

Leadership roles
In 1987, he stood for election to the Shadow Cabinet, receiving 71 votes.[41] When Kinnock
resigned after a further Conservative victory in the 1992 election, Blair became Shadow
Home Secretary under John Smith. The old guard argued that trends showed they were
regaining strength under Smith's strong leadership. Meanwhile, the breakaway SDP faction
had merged with the Liberal Party; the resulting Liberal Democrats seemed to pose a major
threat to the Labour base. Tony Blair had an entirely different vision. Blair, the leader of the
modernising faction, argued that the long-term trends had to be reversed. The Party was
too locked into a base that was shrinking, since it was based on the working-class, on trade
unions, and on residents of subsidised council housing. The rapidly growing middle class
was largely ignored, especially the more ambitious working-class families. They aspired to
middle-class status, but accepted the Conservative argument that Labour was holding
ambitious people back with its levelling down policies. They increasingly saw Labour in
terms defined by the opposition, regarding higher taxes and higher interest rates. In order
to present a fresh face and new policies to the elect, New Labour needed more than fresh
leaders; it had to jettison outdated policies. The first step was procedural, but essential.
Calling on the slogan, "One member, one vote" Blair (with some help from Smith) defeated
the union element and ended the block voting by which leaders of labour unions cast
hundreds of thousands of votes on behalf of their members, and had an outsize voice in the
party.[42] Blair and the modernizers called for radical adjustment of Party goals by repealing
"Clause IV," the historic commitment to nationalisation of industry. That was achieved in
1995.[43]

Opposition Leader
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.[44] As
is customary for the holder of that office, Blair was appointed a Privy Councillor.[45]
Labour was seen by the The Guardian to be "definitely socialistic" since its first constitution
was published in 1918, saying that support for the "common ownershipof the means of
production and exchange" in Clause IV of the party's constitution, was "decisive" in making
Labour a socialist party.[46] Blair announced at the end of his speech at the 1994 Labour
Party conference that he intended to replace this clause of the party's constitution with a
new statement of aims and values.[44] 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.[44][47] At a special conference
in April 1995, the clause was replaced by a statement that the party is "democratic
socialist",[47][48][49] and Blair also claimed to be a "democratic socialist" himself in the same
year.[50] However, the move away from nationalisation in the old Clause IV made many on
the left of the Labour Party feel that Labour was moving away from traditional socialist
principles of nationalisation set out in 1918, and was seen by them as part of a shift of the
party towards "New Labour".[51]

He inherited the Labour leadership at a time when the party was ascendant over the Tories
in the opinion polls since the Tory government's reputation for monetary excellence was left
in tatters by the Black Wednesday economic disaster of September 1992. Blair's election
as leader saw Labour support surge higher still[52] in spite of the continuing economic
recovery and fall in unemployment that the Conservative government (led by John Major)
had overseen since the end of the 199092 recession.[52] At the 1996 Labour Party
conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education,
education, and education".[53]
Aided by the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative government (itself deeply divided
over the European Union[54]), "New Labour" won a landslide victory in the1997 general
election, ending 18 years of Conservative Party government, with the heaviest
Conservative defeat since 1906.[55]
According to diaries released by Paddy Ashdown, during Smith's leadership of the Labour
Party, there were discussions with Ashdown about forming a coalitiongovernment if the next
general election resulted in a hung parliament. Ashdown also claimed that Blair was a
supporter of proportional representation (PR).[56] In addition to Ashdown, Liberal Democrat
MPs Menzies Campbell and Alan Beith were earmarked for places in the cabinet if the
coalition was formed.[57] Blair was forced to back down on these proposals because John
Prescott and Gordon Brown opposed the PR system, and many members of the shadow
cabinet were worried about concessions being made towards the Lib Dems. [57] However,
after Blair became leader, these talks continued[citation needed] despite virtually every opinion
poll since late 1992 having shown Labour with enough support to form a majority.
[58]
However, the scale of the Labour victory meant that there was ultimately never any need
for a coalition.[citation needed]

PrimeMinister
Main article: Premiership of Tony Blair
Further information: Blair ministry

Blair with US President Bill Clinton, November 1999

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 became Prime Minister at the age of 42 in 1812.[59] With victories in
1997, 2001, and2005, Blair was the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister,[60] the
only person to date to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories. [citation needed]

Northern Ireland

Blair addressing a crowd in Armaghin 1998

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.[61]
[62]
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 Tyronetown and met with victims at Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.[63]

Military intervention and the War on Terror

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).[64]
The Kosovo War, which Blair had advocated on moral grounds, was initially a failure when
it relied solely on air strikes; the threat of a ground offensive convinced Serbia's Slobodan
Miloevi to withdraw. Blair had been a major advocate for a ground offensive, which Bill
Clinton was reluctant to do, and ordered that 50,000 soldiers most of the available British
Army should be made ready for action.[65] The following year, the limited Operation
Palliser in Sierra Leone swiftly swung the tide against the rebel forces; before deployment,
the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone had been on the verge of collapse.[66] Palliser
had been intended as an evacuation mission but Brigadier David Richards was able to
convince Blair to allow him to expand the role; at the time, Richards' action was not known
and Blair was assumed to be behind it.[67]
Blair ordered Operation Barras, a highly successful SAS/Parachute Regiment strike to
rescue hostages from a Sierra Leone rebel group. [68] Historian Andrew Marr has argued that
the success of ground attacks, real and threatened, over air strikes alone was influential on
how Blair planned the Iraq War, and that the success of the first three wars Blair fought
"played to his sense of himself as a moral war leader".[69] When asked in 2010 if the
success of Palliser may have "embolden[ed] British politicians" to think of military action as
a policy option, General Sir David Richards admitted there "might be something in that". [67]

Tony Blair and George W. Bushshake hands after their press conference in the East Room of the
White House on 12 November 2004.

From the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair strongly supported the foreign policy of
George W. Bush, participating in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of
Iraq. The invasion of Iraq was particularly controversial, as it attracted widespread public
opposition and 139 of Blair's MPs opposed it.[70]

As a result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the circumstances of the
decision. Alastair Campbell described Blair's statement that the intelligence on WMDs was
"beyond doubt" as his "assessment of the assessment that was given to him." [71] In 2009,
Blair stated that he would have supported removing Saddam Hussein from power even in
the face of proof that he had no such weapons.[72] Playwright Harold Pinter and former
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused Blair of war crimes.[73][74]
Testifying before the Iraq Inquiry on 29 January 2010, Blair said Saddam was a "monster
and I believe he threatened not just the region but the world." [75] Blair said that British and
American attitude towards Saddam Hussein had "changed dramatically" after 11
September attacks. Blair denied that he would have supported the invasion of Iraq even if
he had thought Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. He said he believed the
world was safer as a result of the invasion.[76] He said there was "no real difference between
wanting regime change and wanting Iraq to disarm: regime change was US policy because
Iraq was in breach of its UN obligations."[77] In an October 2015CNN interview with Fareed
Zakaria, Blair apologised for his "mistakes" over Iraq War and admitted there were
"elements of truth" to the view that the invasion helped promote the rise of ISIS.
[78]
The Chilcot Inquiry report of 2016 gave a damning assessment of Blair's role in the Iraq
War, though the former prime minister again refused to apologise for his decision to back
the US-led invasion.[79]

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 30minute session on Wednesdays. In addition to PMQs, Blair held monthly press conferences
at which he fielded questions from journalists[80] and from 2002 broke precedent by
agreeing to give evidence twice yearly before the most senior Commons select committee,
the Liaison Committee.[81] 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.[82]
[83]
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. [84] Blair
was accused of excessive reliance on spin.[85][86] He is the first British prime minister to have
been formally questioned by police, though not under caution, while still in office. [87]

Events before resignation

As the casualties of the Iraq War mounted, Blair was accused of misleading Parliament, [88]
[89]
and his popularity dropped dramatically.[90][91]
Labour's overall majority in the 2005 general election was reduced to 66. As a combined
result of the BlairBrown pact, Iraq war and low approval ratings, pressure built up within
the Labour party for Blair to resign.[92][93] Over the summer of 2006 many MPs, including
usually supportive MPs, criticised Blair for his failure to call for a ceasefire in the 2006
IsraelLebanon conflict.[94] On 7 September 2006, Blair publicly stated he would step down
as party leader by the time of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference held 1013
September 2007,[95] 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, Blair
announced his intention to resign as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister.[citation needed]
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 beenChancellor of the
Exchequer.[9] Blair tendered his resignation on 27 June 2007 and Brown assumed office the
same afternoon. Blair 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.[96] The
resulting Sedgefield by-election was won by Labour's candidate, Phil Wilson. Blair decided
not to issue a list ofResignation Honours, making him the first Prime Minister of the modern
era not to do so.[97]

Policies
Further information: Premiership of Tony Blair

Social reforms
In 2001, Blair said, "We are a left of centre party, pursuing economic prosperity and social
justice as partners and not as opposites".[98]
Blair rarely applies 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.[99] However, at
least one left-wing commentator has said that Blair is to the right of centre.
[100]
A YouGov opinion poll in 2005 found that a small majority of British voters, including
many New Labour supporters, place Blair on the right of the political spectrum.
[101]
The Financial Times on the other hand has argued that Blair is not conservative, but
instead a populist.[102]
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. Some leftwing 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. [103]
There is some evidence that Blair's long term dominance of the centre forced his
Conservative opponents to shift a long distance to the left to challenge hishegemony there.
[104]
Leading Conservatives of the post-New Labour era hold Blair in high regard: George
Osborne describes him as "the master"; Michael Goveonce exclaimed, "I can't hold it back
any moreI love Tony"; while David Cameron reportedly maintains Blair as an informal
adviser.[105][106]
During his time as prime minister, Blair raised taxes; introduced a National Minimum
Wage and some new employment rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher's trade union
reforms[107]); 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[108] which attracted criticism.[109]
Blair increased police powers by adding to the number of arrestable offences,
compulsory DNA recording and the use of dispersal orders.[110] He did not reverse
theprivatisation of the railways enacted by his predecessor John Major and instead
strengthened regulation (by creating the Office of Rail Regulation) and limited fare rises
to inflation +1%.[111][112][113]

Environmental record
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 Congress and said that climate change "cannot be ignored", insisting "we need to go
beyond even Kyoto."[114] Blair and his party promised a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide.
[115]
The Labour Party also claimed that by 2010 10% of the energy would come from
renewable resources; however, it only reached 7% by that point.[116]
In 2000, Blair "flagged up" 100 million euros for green policies and urged environmentalists
and businesses to work together.[117]

Foreign policy

Jacques Chirac, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi during the G8 Summit in vian,
June 2003

Blair built his foreign policy on basic principles (close ties with US and EU) and added a
new activist philosophy of "interventionism". In 2001 Britain joined the US in the global war
on terror.[118]
Blair forged friendships with several European leaders, including Silvio Berlusconi of Italy,
[119]
Angela Merkel of Germany[120]and later Nicolas Sarkozy of France.[121]

Blair meets with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, March 2005

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. For his part, Bush
lauded Blair and the UK. In his post-9/11 speech, for example, he stated that "America has
no truer friend than Great Britain".[122]
The alliance between Bush and Blair seriously damaged Blair's standing in the eyes of
Britons angry at American influence.[123] Blair argued it was in Britain's interest to "protect
and strengthen the bond" with the United States regardless of who is in the White House. [124]
However, a perception of one-sided compromising personal and political closeness led to
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. [125] A
revealing conversation between Bush and Blair, with the former addressing the latter as "Yo
[or Yeah], Blair" was recorded when they did not know a microphone was live at
the G8 summit in Saint Petersburg in 2006.[126]
Middle East policy and Israel links
Blair showed a deep feeling for Israel, born in part from his faith.[127] Blair has been a
longtime member of the pro-Israel lobby group Labour Friends of Israel.[128]
In 1994, Blair forged close ties with Michael Levy, a leader of the Jewish Leadership
Council.[129] Levy ran the Labour Leader's Office Fund to finance Blair's campaign before the
1997 election and raised 12 million towards Labour's landslide victory, Levy was rewarded
with a peerage, and in 2002, Blair appointed Lord Levy as his personal envoy to the Middle
East. Levy praised Blair for his "solid and committed support of the State of Israel". [130] 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, Peter Mandelson and Jack Straw (the last two are not Jewish but have some Jewish
ancestry).[131]
Blair, on coming to office, had been "cool towards the right-wing Netanyahu government".
[132]
During his first visit to Israel, Blair thought the Israelis bugged him in his car.[133] After the
election in 1999 of Ehud Barak, with whom Blair forged a close relationship, he became
much more sympathetic to Israel.[132] From 2001, Blair built up a relationship [clarification needed] with
Barak's successor, Ariel Sharon, and responded positively to Arafat, whom he had met
thirteen times since becoming prime minister and regarded as essential to future
negotiations.[132] In 2004, 50 former diplomats, including ambassadors to Baghdad and Tel
Aviv, stated they had "watched with deepening concern" at Britain following the US into war
in Iraq in 2003. They criticised Blair's support for the road map for peace which included the
retaining of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.[134]
In 2006 Blair was criticised for his failure to immediately call for a ceasefire in the 2006
Lebanon War. 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. [135] Blair was
criticised for his solid stance alongside US President George W. Bush on Middle East
policy.[136]
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
showed 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. The newspaper noted:
The Arab leader was granted audiences with the Queen and the Prince of Wales, lunch
with Blair at Downing Street, a platform in parliament and many other privileges. . . . The
red carpet treatment he and his entourage received is embarrassing given
the bloodbath that has since taken place under his rule in Syria. . . . The courtship has
parallels with Blair's friendly relations with Muammar Gaddafi.[137]
Blair had been on friendly terms with Colonel Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, when sanctions
imposed on the country were lifted by the USA and the UK.[138][139]
Even after the Libyan Civil War in 2011, he said he had no regrets about his close
relationship with the late Libyan leader.[140] During Blair's
premiership, MI6rendered Abdelhakim Belhadj to the Gaddafi regime in 2004, though Blair
later claimed he had "no recollection" of the incident. [141]

Relationshipwithmedia
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.[142] In 2011, Blair became
Godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch's children with Wendi Deng,[143] 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.[144][145][146]
[better source needed]

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.[147]
The response includes contacts "clearly of an official nature" in the specified period, but
excludes contacts "not clearly of an official nature."[148] 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. [149]
The information was disclosed after a three and a half-year battle by the Liberal
Democrats' Lord Avebury.[147] Lord Avebury's initial October 2003 information request was
dismissed by then leader of the Lords, Baroness Amos.[147] 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.
[147]
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."[147]
Blair appeared before the Leveson Inquiry on Monday 28 May 2012.[150] 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. [151]

Media portrayal
Blair has been noted as a charismatic, articulate speaker with an informal style.[44] Film and
theatre director Richard Eyre opined that "Blair had a very considerable skill as a
performer".[152] 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".[153][154]
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.[155]
Blair had close relationships with the Clinton family. The strong partnership with Bill
Clinton was made into the film "The Special Relationship" in 2010.[156]