Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born  May 6, 1953) is a British politician who serves as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007.

After his resignation, he wis appointed Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, an office which he holds until 2015

He currently serves as the Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

Blair was born in Edinburgh; his father, Leo, was a barrister and academic.

After attending the independent school Fettes College, he studies law at St John's College, Oxford and becomes a barrister.

He becomes involved in Labour politics and is elected Member of Parliament for Sedgefield in 1983.

He supports moving the party to the center of British politics in an attempt to help it win power (it had been out of government since 1979).

He is appointed to the party's frontbench in 1988 and becomes Shadow Home Secretary in 1992.

He becomes Leader of the Opposition on his election as Labour Party leader in 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith.

Under Blair, the party uses the phrase "New Labour" to distance itself from previous Labour politics and the traditional idea of socialism.

He declares support for the Third Way—politics that recognize individuals as socially interdependent, advocating social justice, cohesion, the equal worth of each citizen, and equal opportunity

Despite opposition from Labour's hard left, he removes the party's formal commitment to the nationalization of the economy, weakens trade union influence in the party, and commits to the free market and the European Union.

In 1997, the Labour Party wins its largest landslide general election victory in its history.

Blair becomes the country's youngest leader since 1812 and remains the party's longest-serving occupant of the office.

Labour wins two more general elections under his leadership—in 2001, in which it wins another landslide victory (albeit with the lowest turnout since 1918), and in 2005, with a greatly reduced majority.

He resigns as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party in 2007 and is succeeded by Gordon Brown, who had been his Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1997.

Blair's governments enact constitutional reforms, removing most hereditary peers from the House of Lords, while also establishing the UK's Supreme Court and reforming the office of Lord Chancellor (thereby separating judicial powers from the legislative and executive branches).

His government holds referendums in which Scottish and Welsh electorates vote in favor of devolved administration, paving the way for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Parliament (both in 1999).

He is also involved in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement.

His time in office occurs during a period of continued economic growth, but this becoms increasingly dependent on mounting debt.

In 1997, his government gives the Bank of England powers to set interest rates autonomously and he later oversees a large increase in public spending, especially in healthcare and education.

He champions multiculturalism and, between 1997 and 2007, immigration risse considerably, especially after his government welcomes immigration from the new EU member states in 2004

This provides a cheap and flexible labor supply but also fuels Euroscepticism, especially among some of his party's core voters.

His other social policies are generally progressive; he introduces the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and in 2004 allows gay couples to enter into civil partnerships.

However, he declares himself "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" and oversees increasing incarceration rates and new anti-social behavior legislation, despite contradictory evidence about the change in crime rates.

Blair oversees British interventions in Kosovo (1999) and Sierra Leone (2000) which are generally perceived as successful.

During the War on Terror, he supports the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration and ensures that the British Armed Forces participates in the War in Afghanistan from 2001 and, more controversially, the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The latter becomes increasingly unpopular among the British public, and he is criticized by opponents and (in 2016) the Iraq Inquiry for waging an unjustified and unnecessary invasion.

He is in office when the 7/7 bombings take place (2005) and introduces a range of anti-terror legislation.

His legacy remains controversial, not least because of his interventions in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Despite his electoral successes and reforms, he has also been criticized for his relationship with the media, centralization of executive powers, and aspects of his social and economic policies

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