Tony Blair

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Tony Blair
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Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair served as the United Kingdoms Prime Minister from 2 May 1997 until 27 June 2007,10 years and 56 days. At the age of 43, Tony Blair became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812 and moved into Number 10 with his family.He was the leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007,the Labour Party won the 1997 General Election by a landslide, after 18 years in Opposition.Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister and the only person to have led the Labour Party to three consecutive general election victories.Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister and the only person to have led the Labour Party to three consecutive general election victories. On 24 June 2007 Gordon Brown succeeded him as Leader of the Labour Party and on 27 June 2007 became Prime minister.


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Background

Blair was born at the Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh, Scotland on 6 May 1953,but spent most of his childhood in Durham.He studied law at Oxford and then practiced law until 1983, when he was elected as member of Parliament from Sedgefield. Blair was a member of the Labour Party, which at the time was dominated politically by the Conservative Party of Margaret Thatcher. Blair was soon a rising star of what became known as the "new Labour" movement, with positions more centrist on fiscal affairs and social issues like crime. After standing unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in a by-election in Beaconsfield in 1982, Mr Blair went on to win the seat of Sedgefield in the General Election the following year, aged 30.

Tony Blair made a speedy rise through the ranks until the Labour leader, John Smith, promoted him to Shadow Home Secretary following the 1992 election.John Smith died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1994 and, in the subsequent leadership contest, Tony Blair won a large majority of his party's support.

He immediately launched his campaign to modernize the Labour Party and re-claim the political center, which he saw as essential for victory. Party members showed their support for his project when they voted to remove Labor's historic commitment to public ownership, helping Mr Blair to create what he coined "New Labour."


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External Links

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