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| Affiliation | Labour |
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| <- |
2007-01-01 |
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| Name | Tony Blair |
| Address | Connaught Square
London, Scotland , United Kingdom |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
May 06, 1953
(71 years)
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| Contributor | Bob |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
May 06, 2024 03:46am |
| Tags |
English - Scottish - Fabian Society - Anglican - Catholic -
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| Info | Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair
The son of a barrister and lecturer, Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh and educated at Fettes School. He studied law at Oxford, and went on to become a barrister himself.
After standing unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in a by-election, Blair went on to win the seat of Sedgefield in the 1983 General Election, aged 30. He made a speedy rise through the ranks, being promoted first to the shadow Treasury front bench in 1985. 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 Labour's new leader, John Smith, promoted Blair, making him Shadow Home Secretary. It was in this post that Blair made famous his pledge that Labour would be tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.
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.
Blair immediately launched his campaign for the modernisation of the Labour Party, determined to complete the shift further towards the political centre which he saw as essential for victory. The debate over Clause 4 of the party's constitution was considered the crucial test of whether its members would commit to Blair's project. He successfully removed the commitment to public ownership, and at this time coined the term New Labour.
The Labour Party went on to win the 1997 General Election by a landslide, after 18 years in Opposition. The government began to implement a far-reaching programme of constitutional change, putting the question of devolution to referendums in Scotland and Wales, establishing an elected post of Mayor of London at the head of a new capital-wide authority, and removing all but 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords in the first stage of its reform. The Labour Government has also implemented an investment programme of ?42 billion in its priority areas of health and education.
Tony Blair was re-elected with another landslide majority in the 2001 General Election.
Tony Blair is married to the barrister Cherie Booth, and they have four children. Their youngest, Leo, was the first child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years.
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