Birth
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (Tony Blair) was born in 1953. He served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007.
Education
Born in Edinburgh on 6 May 1953, Blair attended the independent school, Fettes College, in Edinburgh, and read law at St John’s College, Oxford.
Personal Life
Blair and his wife Cherie Booth met at the chambers founded by Derry Irvine (who was to be Blair’s first Lord Chancellor) and married in 1980. The former UK prime minister proposed to Cherie while she was on the floor cleaning a toilet. Cherie Blair told BBC television that Tony proposed to her in 1979 when she was cleaning a villa in Tuscany while they were on holiday. The reporter asked her: So you agreed to marry her while you were cleaning the bathroom? Cherie replied: Yes, it was very lovely. It was very romantic! Tony Blair has four children. All four children have Irish passports. His first granddaughter was born in October 2016.
Political Record
Until 1983, Blair worked as a lawyer specialising in employment and industrial law. He was elected to parliament in 1983 and served as assistant Treasury spokesman in 1984 as a front-bencher. He was Shadow Trade and Industry spokesman in 1987. His main specialty was consumer and urban affairs.
He joined the shadow cabinet in October 1988 and, as energy secretary, became responsible for leading the Labour Party in opposition to the privatisation of electricity. In 1989, he became Shadow Secretary of State for Employment, where he worked on trade union rights. Blair was elected Shadow Home Secretary in 1992.
In September 1992, he became a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party. He chaired the party’s Reform Commission and played an influential role in deepening the party’s inclination towards the EU. He also established close ties with the Clinton administration in the US. He became leader of the UK Labour Party in July 1997, following the death of John Smith in May of that year. Blair was appointed prime minister on 2 May 1997. At 43, at the time of his election, he was the youngest prime minister in the UK , after Lord Liverpool, who became prime minister in 1812 at the age of 42. With victories in 1997, 2001 and 2005, he became the most successful Labour prime minister to win three consecutive elections. As the casualties of the Iraq war increased, however, Blair was accused of deceiving parliament and his popularity plummeted. The report of the research group on the role of the UK in the war after seven years was published on Wednesday, 6 July 2016. The start of the Iraq war was not a last resort, but the UK government decided to go to war before peaceful and diplomatic means to disarm Iraq could be reached, said John Chilcot, chairman of the Iraq Inquiry. “Tony Blair overestimated his ability to influence US government decisions,” the report said. “I am with you no matter what,” he wrote in a letter to George W Bush. “Maintaining the UK-US relationship does not require unconditional support,” the report added. According to the BBC, some people want Tony Blair to be tried for war crimes. Blair said that their numbers were not enough to defeat Saddam Hussein, but said that it was even better. On 27 June 2007, Blair resigned as prime minister after ten years in office, and he was officially confirmed as Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East (US, EU, Russia, UN) at the United Nations. Blair was preceded by John Major who was prime minister from 1990-1997. Blair resigned in 2007 and was replaced by Gordon Brown. Gordon Brown was Treasury Secretary in Tony Blair’s cabinet.
