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Tony Blair
born: 06-05-1953
birth place: Edinburgh, Scotland

The son of a barrister and lecturer, Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh, but spent most of his childhood in Durham.


At the age of 14 he returned to Edinburgh to finish his schooling at Fettes College. He was later educated at St. John's College, Oxford, where he obtained a law degree. He joined the Labour Party after graduation.

During the 1983 general election Blair became MP for Sedgefield, and aligned himself with the reforming tendencies in the party. He made a speedy rise through the ranks, being promoted first to the shadow Treasury front bench in 1984. He subsequently served as a trade and industry spokesman, before being elected to the Shadow Cabinet in 1988 where he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Energy. In 1989 he moved to the employment brief.

After the 1992 election, the new Labour leader John Smith, promoted Blair to Shadow Home Secretary. It was in this post that Mr Blair made famous his pledge that Labour would be tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

Two years later Smith died of a heart attack. Blair and fellow shadow cabinet member, Gordon Brown, famously agreed that Blair would stand for the leadership, with Brown becoming Chancellor in the event of victory.

Elected using the new election rules they had helped to bring in, Blair and Brown set about changing the Labour Party, modifying its constitution away from commitments to public ownership, and allying the party to big business, rather than the trade unions movement.

Although it attracted much criticism for its alleged superficiality, from both political opponents and traditionalists within the party, "New Labour" achieved a landslide victory over John Major’s ruling Conservative Party in the 1997 general election.

In government Blair has been notable for his commitment to business interests. He will probably be best remembered for the introduction of university tuition fees, and for market reforms to the NHS and social services. He has also been criticised for his attachment to media manipulation and ‘spin’.

Blair also presided over the British involvement in the Kosovan War, and was the only Prime Minister of the 20th century to father a child while in office.

Despite a drastically reduced turnout in the 2001 UK general election, the Labour Party preserved its majority. Blair became the first Labour Prime Minister to serve two consecutive terms.

Following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001, Blair was quick to align Britain with the US, specifically involving the country in the hugely controversial campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. This cost him a substantial percentage of his popular support.

On a more positive note, his contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement after 30 years of conflict is widely recognised.

On 10 May 2007, Blair announced during a speech at the Trimdon Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency his intention to resign as Labour Party leader and that he will tender his resignation as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007. He was replaced by Gordon Brown.

Blair is married to barrister Cherie Booth. They have three sons and one daughter.