Sir Tony Blair served as prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2007. He remains the only leader in the Labour Party’s history to win three consecutive general elections (1997, 2001 and 2005).

Blair is widely credited with moving the Labour Party towards the centre ground of British politics during the 1990s. As prime minister, his policy programme reflected a “third way” position between traditional socialist economics and neoliberalism. This ideological re-orientation was signalled by Blair’s adoption of the “New Labour” brand.

Notwithstanding his electoral successes, Blair’s legacy remains highly controversial – primarily due to his government’s decision to support and join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In his final speech to Labour conference as leader, Blair addressed such criticisms, declaring: “They say I hate the party, and its traditions. I don’t. I love this party. There’s only one tradition I hated: losing”.

In the 2022 New Year Honours, Blair was appointed a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the oldest and most senior British order of chivalry.

Tony Blair: prime minister (1997-2007)

Blair’s appointment as prime minister followed Labour’s landslide victory in the 1997 general election. The result was the most decisive for any party since 1945, with Labour securing a House of Commons majority of 179 seats. The Conservatives were reduced to just 165 seats – their worst result since 1906.

Labour ran a highly disciplined and professional campaign in 1997, masterminded by Peter Mandelson. Labour’s message of change was summed up by its campaign anthem, D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better”. Labour set out to defuse the “tax bombshell” that Conservative strategists dropped on Neil Kinnock’s 1992 campaign by committing, in the immediate term, to Tory spending plans. Labour’s manifesto, entitled New Labour, New Life for Britain, conceded that the Conservatives got “some things” right.

In his victory speech, Blair declared that “a new dawn has broken, has it not?”.

On 2 May, Blair was appointed as the youngest British prime minister since the early 19th century. Gordon Brown was appointed as the new chancellor, Robin Cook as foreign secretary and Jack Straw as home secretary. John Prescott, the deputy Labour leader, was appointed deputy prime minister and head of a new “super-ministry”, combining parts of the environment and transport departments.

Blair enjoyed a mostly unchallenged political supremacy across his first term as prime minister (1997-2001). Mere months after the 1997 election, Blair demonstrated his instinctive understanding of modern media and public sentiment with his response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. He described Diana as “the people’s princess”.

One of Blair’s most significant achievements came in April 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). Following marathon multi-party talks in Belfast, the GFA (also known as the Belfast Agreement) established a new political framework for Northern Ireland. Its central pillar was the creation of a devolved Northern Ireland Assembly and a power-sharing executive, inviting unionists and nationalists to govern together. Announcing the deal, Blair declared that “the irresistible force of the political leaders” had finally moved an “immovable object”.

During his tenure as prime minister, Blair embraced a programme of constitutional reform and modernisation. Referenda in Scotland and Wales led to the formation of two devolved legislatures; the Greater London Authority Act 1999 established the London mayoralty; and the House of Lords Act 1999 reduced the number of hereditary peers from around 750 at the time to 92.

Blair’s government was also responsible for the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Some years later, the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 created an independent supreme court to serve as the UK’s final court of appeal, a role historically held by the appellate committee of the House of Lords.

In his first term, Blair oversaw British military interventions in Kosovo (1999) and Sierra Leone (2000) – which were broadly seen as successful from a humanitarian perspective.

In terms of economic policy, Blair’s government significantly increased spending on health and education, and introduced the National Minimum Wage Act.

Blair led Labour to a second consecutive general election victory in 2001, winning a majority of 166. This result condemned the Conservative Party to another term of opposition, precipitating William Hague’s resignation as leader.

Blair and the Iraq War

Blair’s decision to support the US-led invasion of Iraq defines his legacy for many critics.

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, a US-led coalition including the UK began military action in Afghanistan as part of the “war on terror”. In January 2002, US president George W Bush identified Iraq as part of the “axis of evil”.

In his state of union address, Bush declared: “By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred…

“Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun. This campaign may not be finished on our watch, yet it must be and it will be waged on our watch.”

In September 2002, Bush addressed the United Nations General Assembly and warned Iraq that military action would be unavoidable if it did not comply with UN resolutions on disarmament. Mere weeks later, the UK published a dossier which claimed that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction. It claimed that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of an order to do so. In the foreword, Blair declared that the issue was a “current and serious threat to the UK national interest”.

In November 2002, the UN Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1441 to give Iraq “a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations”. From November 2002 to March 2003, however, the UN failed to find any weapons of mass destruction after 700 inspections.

On 15 February 2003, in what is believed to be the largest political demonstration in British history, over one million people marched through central London to protest against the prospect of a war with Iraq. The event was part of a coordinated global day of action that reportedly saw over 20 million demonstrate in cities worldwide. By the time of the march, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (SNP) had all affiliated to the Stop the War Coalition.

On 25 February 2003, the US and the UK submitted a draft resolution to the UN arguing that Iraq had missed its “final opportunity” to disarm peacefully. It declared that Iraq had “failed to take the final opportunity afforded to it in resolution 1441.” France, Germany and Russia submitted a rival proposal to the council calling for further weapons inspections as an alternative to military action. In March, France announced it would join Russia in vetoing a re-drafted UN resolution which gave Iraq until 17 March to disarm.

Britain, the United States and Spain, having all promoted the proposed resolution, later abandoned it in the face of opposition. Bush responded by giving Iraq leader Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war.

Hours after this decision was taken, Robin Cook resigned from the cabinet as leader of the House of Commons. Cook delivered a famous personal statement to the commons, urging MPs to thwart the “commitment of troops in a war that has neither international agreement nor domestic support.”

On 18 March 2003, following one of the most momentous debates in modern parliamentary history, MPs authorised military action by 412 votes to 149. A mass ministerial walkout failed to materialise. In his address to parliament during the debate on 18 March, Blair argued that the decision would determine the fate of the Iraqi regime, the future of the Iraqi people and the “pattern of international politics for the next generation.”

The invasion of Iraq – Operation Iraqi Freedom – began on 20 March 2003.

Blair notified the nation in a live televised address.

The prime minister stated: “On Tuesday night I gave the order for British forces to take part in military action in Iraq. Tonight British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea.

“Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.”

On 29 May 2003, BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan reported that Downing Street had inserted the claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes into its September 2002 dossier despite knowing the assertion was questionable. Gilligan alleged that the “45 minutes” claim was included at the insistence of Alastair Campbell, the government’s head of communications. The government and Campbell vehemently denied the story, precipitating a major confrontation between Downing Street and the BBC.

On 30 June, Dr David Kelly, was reported to have informed his MoD superiors that he had met Gilligan on 22 May, but believed he could not have been the main source for the “sexed up” claim. Some days later on 8 July, at a meeting chaired by Blair as prime minister, it was agreed that a statement would be issued indicating that an MoD official had come forward, while stopping short of directly naming him. The government also took the position that if journalists correctly identified the individual, the government would confirm it. This has been referred to as the “guessing game” strategy.

Kelly’s name entered the public domain on 9 July. He was subsequently subjected to questioning by the foreign affairs and intelligence and security select committees on 15 and 17 July.

On 18 July, Kelly’s body was found near his Oxfordshire home.

The government immediately commissioned a public inquiry into Kelly’s death. The inquiry’s terms of reference were to “urgently to conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly.” At a press conference in Tokyo, where he was meeting his Japanese counterpart, Blair was asked if he had “blood on his hands”. Blair called for “respect and restraint” until the full circumstances were known.

The public inquiry, led by Lord Hutton, one of the UK’s most senior judges, began its work on 11 August. The inquiry report, published as planned on 28 January 2004, ran to 750 pages in 13 chapters and 18 appendices.

The report exonerated the government much more completely than had been expected. It concluded that Blair’s government did not act in a “dishonourable, underhand or duplicitous” way in its handling of the events surrounding the death of Dr Kelly. Hutton also described Gilligan’s report that the September dossier was sexed up as “unfounded”.

In a commons statement on 28 January 2004, Blair urged those who had accused him of lying to the House to retract their statements. “The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on WMD is itself the real lie”, he said.

On 28 April 2005, the confidential 13-page legal advice provided by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, to the prime minister in 2003 regarding the legality of the Iraq war, was published in full. The disclosure, which came at the height of the 2005 general election campaign, revealed the attorney general had privately counselled that a court “might well conclude” military action in Iraq was illegal without a second UN resolution.

Goldsmith’s advice warned that the “language of resolution 1441… leaves the position unclear”. He advised that while he could make a “reasonable case” for military action, “the safest legal course would be to secure the adoption of a further resolution to authorise the use of force”. Blair denied that the private advice amounted to a declaration that the Iraq War was illegal, and defended the decision not to circulate it to the cabinet.

In 2009, Blair’s successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown, established an inquiry to investigate the run-up to the war and its aftermath. In a statement to the commons, Brown explained that, with the final British combat troops about to return from Iraq, it was “the right time” to ensure a “proper process in place to enable us to learn the lessons of the complex and often controversial events of the last six years.”

The Iraq Inquiry was officially launched on 30 July 2009.

Blair was publicly questioned by the inquiry on 29 January 2010, and again on 21 January 2011.

On 6 July 2016, the findings of the Iraq Inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, were published after seven years of investigation. The 2.6 million-word report – longer than the King James Version of the Bible, the complete works of William Shakespeare, and Tolstoy’s War and Peace put together – provided a searing indictment of the intelligence failures, shaky legal rationale, miscalculations, inadequate military preparation and exaggerated public statements that led to the UK’s involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Blair’s handover to Brown (2005-2007)

Blair was returned to power after the 2005 general election, but with a substantially reduced Labour majority of 66. The leak of the attorney general’s confidential legal advice regarding the legality of the Iraq War proved a damaging story during the 2005 general election campaign.

Blair declared as early as September 2004 that he would not seek a fourth term as prime minister, at which point it was well known that Gordon Brown, the chancellor, coveted the top job.

Tension between Blair and Brown was a constant theme of the 2005 general election campaign. This longstanding strain was only momentarily defused when the prime minister was pictured handing his chancellor an ice cream. Blair initially pledged to serve a full third term. “I’ve said I will serve a full term, that’s what people will be electing”, he insisted in April 2005, mere weeks before polling day. But the prime minister came under considerable political pressure in the year following the election.

The terms of Brown’s succession were reportedly settled over a decade earlier following the death of John Smith, who served as Labour leader from 1992 to 1994. This dynamic – the “Granita Pact” – effectively defined the strained Blair-Brown relationship from 1997 to 2007. Over time, the latter’s patience wore increasingly thin.

In November 2005, Blair suffered his first major commons defeat as prime minister, when MPs rejected a government amendment to the Terrorism Bill. The 90-day amendment, introduced at report stage, was defeated by 322 votes to 291 – a majority of 31. A total of 49 Labour MPs defied the government’s three-line whip and sided with the opposition.

In February 2006, Blair reportedly responded to the incessant handover requests from Brown with a private note. “The division at the top is killing us”, he stated.

Blair’s authority was undermined by the so-called “cash-for-honours” scandal, when, in early 2006, the police were called upon to investigate allegations that fundraisers for both the Labour and Conservative parties had offered supporters a life peerage in return for their financial support. Blair and various other figures from all the main parties were interviewed by the police over the affair. Lord Levy, Labour’s fundraiser, was arrested and released on bail. In addition, the prime minister came in for criticism over his response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 2006. He refused to back international calls for an immediate ceasefire.

The catalyst for the rebellion that ultimately ousted Blair was a comment he made during an interview with the Times newspaper. It came as the prime minister hoped to downplay calls for him to set a fixed departure date – as demanded by allies of Brown. On 1 September 2006, Blair told MPs to stop “obsessing” about the likely duration of his tenure and to “get on with the business of government”. He rebuffed calls to set a departure date.

On 5 September 2006, 17 Labour MPs describing themselves as “Labour loyalists and implacable modernisers” issued a letter – coordinated by Chris Bryant and Siôn Simon – calling on Blair to stand down. Tom Watson, a junior government minister, was among the signatories. Watson was told to withdraw his name or resign by the government chief whip, Jacqui Smith; he resigned alongside six parliamentary private secretaries.

In the end, Blair was forced to announce that the party’s upcoming conference would be his last. On 7 September, during a pre-arranged visit to a school in London, the prime minister conceded that recent developments had not been Labour’s “finest hour.”

Blair told reporters in a statement: “Now, as for my timing and date of departure, I would have preferred to do this in my own way, but as has been pretty obvious from what many of my cabinet colleagues have said earlier in the week, the next party conference in a couple of weeks will be my last party conference as party leader, the TUC next week will be my last TUC, probably to the relief of both of us.”

On 25 September, at the scene of Blair’s final conference, Brown declared his candidacy for the leadership. The chancellor said he would “relish the opportunity to take on David Cameron and the Conservative Party.”

Blair delivered his final conference speech as prime minister the following day, 26 September.

He told delegates: “They say I hate the party, and its traditions. I don’t. I love this party. There’s only one tradition I hated: losing. I hated the 1980s not just for our irrelevance but for our revelling in irrelevance.”

Brown was the only candidate to secure the necessary nominations from MPs. John McDonnell, a veteran leftwinger, failed to gather sufficient support. Brown won 313 (88.2%) nominations to McDonnell’s 29 (8.2%).

At a special conference on 24 June 2007, the long-serving chancellor was announced as the new Labour leader.

On the day of the handover, Blair tendered his resignation to the queen at Buckingham Palace. Brown then made his own visit to be invited to form a government as prime minister.

In his first speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street, Brown promised a new direction.

He stated: “This will be a new government with new priorities… I will try my upmost. This is my promise to all of the people of Britain. And now let the work of change begin.”

In his memoirs, published September 2010, Blair said that Brown could be “maddening” and accused his successor of lacking “emotional intelligence”.

In a July 2010 interview with the Times, Lord Mandelson said that Brown had been “very badly served” by his allies when he was chancellor. Confidential papers, which found their way into the press in June 2011, appeared to detail a plot by allies of Brown to oust Blair as prime minister. The 2006 plot, codenamed “Project Volvo”, pointed to a campaign of co-ordinated activity by key Brownite figures to exert pressure on the prime minister.

Tony Blair: rise to prominence (1983-1994)

Blair first stood for parliament as the Labour candidate in the 1982 Beaconsfield by-election. He placed third with 3,886 votes (10.4%).

Blair was regarded as having run a strong campaign in Beaconsfield, notwithstanding his resounding defeat, and was selected as the Labour candidate for the safe seat of Sedgefield ahead of the 1983 general election.

Under the leadership of Michael Foot, Labour suffered a landslide defeat at the 1983 general election. But Blair secured a place in parliament.

In his maiden speech, delivered on 6 July 1983, Blair outlined his political philosophy.

He 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 co-operation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality, not because it wants people to be the same but because only through equality in our economic circumstances can our individuality develop properly.”

In the House of Commons, Blair shared an office with another newly elected Labour MP for Dunfermline East, Gordon Brown. They formed a close political partnership and friendship, rising rapidly through the party ranks during Labour’s years in opposition.

Blair and Brown were seen as leaders of Labour’s “modernising” tendency under Neil Kinnock and John Smith, who led the Labour Party from 1983 to 1994. Blair joined the shadow cabinet in 1988 as shadow secretary of state for energy. He went on to hold the positions of shadow secretary of state for employment (1989-1992) and shadow home secretary (1992-1994).

From 1992 to 1994, Blair and Brown agitated for Smith to go further in unapologetically embracing “modernisation”. Smith attracted some internal criticism for his perceived adoption of a “one more heave” approach, which was rejected by modernisers as complacent in the wake of four consecutive defeats.

John Smith died on the morning of 12 May 1994 after suffering a serious heart attack. On the evening of 11 May 1994, Smith delivered what was to be his final speech. He told attendees of a Labour fundraising dinner: “The opportunity to serve our country – that is all we ask.”

Tony Blair: leader of the opposition (1994-1997)

Smith’s sudden death at the age of 55 triggered the 1994 Labour leadership contest. According to Labour lore, Brown reluctantly agreed not to stand against Blair for the leadership, allowing him a clear run. This purported arrangement, finalised at the Granita restaurant in London, promised Brown unprecedented powers over economic policy as chancellor and the premiership, in time, upon Blair’s resignation as prime minister.

In his memoir My Life, Our Times, published November 2017, Brown said the importance of the Granita dinner had been over-stated – suggesting the agreement between the Labour rising stars had been agreed a fortnight earlier. The dinner, he revealed, “merely confirmed what he had already offered and I had already agreed.”

Brown’s decision not to run meant that Blair faced two opponents: the shadow employment secretary, John Prescott, seen as representing the party’s traditionalist wing and trade union base, and the acting leader, Margaret Beckett. The shadow home secretary ultimately won a commanding 57.0% of the electoral college vote, securing majorities in all three sections (52.3% among affiliates, 58.2% among constituency members, and 60.5% among MPs/MEPs). John Prescott came second with 24.1%, and Margaret Beckett third on 18.9%.

In the simultaneous deputy leadership election, Prescott defeated Beckett, creating a leadership team that balanced the party’s modernising and more traditional wings.

In his acceptance speech, Blair said it was an honour to be elected as leader of the Labour Party and noted the “profound sense” of the responsibility that came with it.

Blair called for a “changed Labour Party, with the vision and confidence, to lead Britain in a changing world: that is our pledge to the people of this country. And one purpose more.”

As leader of the opposition, Blair oversaw the creation of the “New Labour” project – a process of rapid modernisation and ideological repositioning.

Blair was an effective opposition leader and frequently bested John Major, the prime minister, in the House of Commons. On 25 April 1995, during a famous session of prime minister’s questions (PMQs), Blair dismissed Major with a famous riposte, declaring: “I lead my party, he follows his.”

As Conservative leader, Major struggled to manage deep divisions within his party – especially over Europe. The parliamentary battles over the Maastricht Treaty had bitterly divided Conservative MPs, with a group of eurosceptic backbenchers (the “Maastricht rebels” or “euro-rebels”) repeatedly challenging the government’s position. Major’s majority stood at around 20 after the 1992 general election – meaning internal party discipline was crucial to the proper function of government.

Blair’s “I lead my party” line was delivered as Labour prepared for a symbolic showdown at a special conference over the future of “Clause IV”

The original Clause IV, adopted in 1918, committed the party to securing for workers “the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange”. For decades, the clause was seen as a symbolic expression of the party’s democratic socialist identity. From Blair’s perspective, the traditional totem was an electoral liability that alienated moderate voters and tethered the party to an outdated “Old Labour” ideology.

Blair announced his intention to rewrite the clause in his first conference speech as leader. The move was a political gamble, triggering a fierce internal battle with the party’s left-wing and some trade unions. The Labour leader stood accused of abandoning Labour’s core principles.

Blair, however, framed the debate over revising Clause IV as a “process not of destruction but rebirth”, which would “replace an icon fashioned by human hands for one age, with the spirit that motivates us and which lasts for all ages.”

Speaking at a special party conference, the Labour leader stated: “I wasn’t born into this party. I chose it. I’ve never joined another political party. I believe in it. I’m proud to be the leader of it and it’s the party I’ll always live in and I’ll die in.”

In the end, Labour delegates voted by 65% to 34% to replace the party’s historic commitment to mass nationalisation with a new statement.

The revision of the original Clause IV was a landmark victory for Blair, and the ultimate expression of “New Labour’s” newfound supremacy.

Blair made John Major’s relative lack of political strength a central theme of his communications strategy. On 30 January 1997, during another notable session of prime minister’s questions, Blair derided Major as “Weak. Weak. Weak.”

Major, who won the 1992 general election in a surprise result, had previously outscored Neil Kinnock as “best prime minister” by 15 points. By 1997, however, Blair outscored Major by 14 points.

Blair led Labour into the 1997 general election.

What is Tony Blair doing now?

Blair stood down from parliament upon resigning as prime minister.

Almost immediately, Blair was appointed as special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East (representing the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia). The role was focused on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Palestinian economic development. He held this position until May 2015.

Blair’s primary focus is his non-profit organisation, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), which he established and serves as executive chairman.

Launched in 2016, the TBI operates in numerous countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and beyond, advising governments on strategy, policy implementation, technology transformation, governance, investment, climate action, health systems and peace negotiations. TBI has expanded significantly in recent years and is considered an influential global advisory body.

Blair has described the organisation as aiming to refill the “wide open space in the middle of politics” and combat “frightening authoritarian populism”.

Blair was a prominent critic of the UK’s decision to withdraw from the European Union (Brexit) and Jeremy Corbyn, who served as leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. He was generally supportive of Keir Starmer during his tenures as leader of the opposition and prime minister.

In May 2026, Blair issued a sensational intervention in the wake of the recent local and devolved parliament elections, calling for a strategic departure from the government. Blair’s 5,700-word essay was published on the TBI’s official website. It hit out at Labour’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion”

Blair wrote: “The Labour party is playing with fire; or, more accurately with its future, and that of the country. Whether there is a leadership change or not is irrelevant if it doesn’t start with a policy debate.

“Trying to force the prime minister out, before we know what policy direction we’re bringing in, is not a serious way of conducting ourselves.”

In the 2022 New Year Honours list, Tony Blair was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II as a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (KG), Britain’s oldest and most senior order of chivalry.

Before politics

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 6 May 1953.

Due to his father’s career as a barrister and law lecturer, he spent part of his childhood in Adelaide, Australia, and Durham, England.

Blair attended the Chorister School, Durham, and then Fettes College in Edinburgh.

Blair studied law at St John’s College, Oxford University, graduating in 1975.

After graduating, Blair qualified as a barrister, specialising in employment and industrial law.

Personal life

Blair married fellow barrister Cherie Booth in 1980.

They met while both were trainee barristers in Derry Irvine’s chambers. They have four children: Euan, Nicholas, Kathryn and Leo. Their fourth child, Leo, was born in May 2000.

Trivia

Leo Blair was the first baby born to a serving British prime minister in over 150 years (since Rollo Russell, daughter of Lady Frances Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound and Lord John Russell, in 1849).