Blair, Tony

Blair, Tony (1953- ), British Labour Party politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997- ). Born Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, in Edinburgh, he read law at St John's College, Oxford University, before becoming a barrister specializing in trade union and industrial law. He began his political career in 1983 by becoming Labour Member of Parliament for Sedgefield in County Durham. Blair quickly advanced to the Labour front bench during the Conservative Party administrations of Margaret Thatcher. He was favoured by the two previous Labour leaders, Neil Kinnock and John Smith, because his centre-right politics were thought to appeal to the British electorate who had turned away from the trade union-influenced Labour Party in the general elections from 1979 onward.

From 1984 to 1987 Blair was opposition spokesperson on Treasury and Economic Affairs, moving to the Trade and Industry department in 1987, Energy from 1988 to 1989, and Employment from 1989 to 1992. In 1992 he was promoted again, this time to Shadow Home Secretary. After Smith's death in May 1994, Blair, at 41, became the youngest-ever leader of the Labour Party. He soon established a reputation as a determined reformer and a firm leader, confronting established factions and contentious policy issues within his party. At the Labour Party conference in October 1994 he proposed revising the party constitution, especially Clause IV, which called for extensive nationalization of the economy, and he secured this in April 1995 in the face of considerable internal dissent. He continued to work to modernize the party, along policy lines referred to as "New Labour", while also developing his attack on the incumbent Conservative Party government of John Major. He led his party through the six-week general election campaign of 1997, in which Conservative attacks on his personality and presentation featured heavily. His own campaign emphasized his party agenda of constitutional reform, national unity, and the need for a fresh government after 18 years of Conservative rule. Following the election on May 1, 1997, in which the Labour Party achieved the best general election result in its history, Blair became, at 43 years old, the youngest British prime minister since Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, in 1812. After accepting office, Blair pledged, "We were elected as New Labour and we will govern as New Labour". From the start, major features of Blair's policies were to respond to the globalization of trade and services, and to keep his government's expenditure within the financial framework laid down by his predecessors. The response to globalization included a commitment to a flexible labour market and more generally a disregard for most of the trade union movement's legislative aspirations. Labour's pre-election pledge of budgetary restraint was to assist in controlling inflation in office as well as to avoid losing votes of electors fearful of "tax and spend" policies.

Within its tight financial framework, Blair's government prioritized education and the National Health Service for part of the additional funding made available in the budget of July 2, 1997. An additional £1.3 billion over five years was allocated for school repairs and £1.2 billion for patient care in the National Health Service. However, the biggest sum, £3.5 billion, was assigned to the government's Welfare to Work scheme (see also Welfare State). This scheme made provision for 250,000 young people unemployed for six months or more to receive training, followed by either employment, places on educational courses, or participation in an environmental task force. The most controversial aspect of this scheme was its near compulsory nature, since welfare benefits were to be stopped for those refusing to participate. Blair maintained his links with the United States and continental Europe. In office he continued to seek policy ideas in America and kept up good personal relations with President Bill Clinton, taking care to support him over major policy issues, such as Iraq, and personally, as over allegations of sexual scandals in early 1998. His government also took pains to improve relations with its EU partners. It immediately declared that Britain would sign the European Social Chapter, though it declined to commit Britain to join the European Monetary Union before another general election.

Blair also tried to lead a centre-left grouping of politicians internationally. In February 1998, in responding to the challenge of the global economy, he highlighted five principles for the centre-left: stable and prudent finance; ensuring government intervention in the economy was focused on education, training, and infrastructure, not industry; reforming but maintaining the welfare state; decentralizing and opening up government; and being internationalist, rather than isolationist. In April 1998, after concentrated negotiations, Blair signed, with the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, the agreement intended to bring peace to Northern Ireland. The agreement was endorsed by referendums in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on May 22, 1998. Blair continued to press the implementation of the so-called Good Friday Agreement throughout 1998 and 1999, drawing up a blueprint for decommissioning of paramilitary weapons with Bertie Ahern in March 1999. From March 1999 Blair was one of the strongest proponents of the air offensive launched by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces against Yugoslavia over Yugoslav actions against the civilian population of Kosovo.