Who is Tony Blair?

Tony Blair was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for ten years from 1997 to 2007. He became Prime Minister at the age of 43 and is noted for being the United Kingdom's youngest PM since 1812. Tony Blair was a member of the Labour Party for twenty-two years before becoming Prime Minister.

Tony Blair was born 6 May 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland, as Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. His family was financially well-off and Tony Blair's father, Leo Charles Lynton Blair, was also a politician. Tony Blair attended top schools such as Fettes College in Edinburgh and St. John's College in Oxford. In college, Blair realized that he didn't care much for science, but he did enjoy music and was the lead singer of a band called Ugly Rumors.

Tony Blair joined the United Kingdom's Labour Party in 1975 and became a lawyer in 1976. He married Cherie Booth in 1980 and they had four children. Elected as Sedgefield's Member of Parliament (MP) in 1983, Tony Blair became the Assistant Spokesman on Treasury in 1984 and the Deputy Spokesman on Trade and Industry in 1987.

Elected to the Shadow Cabinet in 1988, Blair was then elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee in 1992. He was also the Shadow Home Secretary in 1992. Tony Blair replaced John Smith, the leader of the Labour Party, in 1994 after Smith's death. In 1997, the Labour Party broke its eighteen year record as the opposition and Blair became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was 43 years old at the time and was the UK's youngest prime minister since Lord Liverpool who was barely 42 when he became Prime Minister in 1812.

Tony Blair served a second term as the UK's Prime Minister when he, along with the Labour Party were re-elected in 2001. A record was set for the Labour Party when it and Tony Blair were re-elected in 2005 for a third term. Tony Blair announced his resignation in 2006 and resigned in 2007. He didn't leave politics altogether, however, as he announced his position as an envoy for the Middle East.