Andrew Marr
At the 2009 BAFTA awards
Born	Andrew William Stevenson Marr (1959-07-31) 31 July 1959 (age 52) Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Education	Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Occupation	Journalist, presenter, political commentator
Notable credit(s)	BBC News The Andrew Marr Show
Salary	£580,000[1]
Spouse	Jackie Ashley (m. 1987-present)
Children	Son and 2 daughters

Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent for two years until May 1998, and was political editor of BBC News from 2000 until 2005. He began hosting a political programme Sunday AM, now called The Andrew Marr Show, on Sunday mornings on BBC One from September 2005. Marr also hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week.

In 2007 he presented a political history of post-war Britain on BBC Two, Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain, followed by a prequel in 2009 - Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain focusing on the period between 1901 and 1945. In 2010 he presented a series, Andrew Marr's Megacities, examining the life, development and challenges of some of the largest cities in the world. In early 2012 he presented The Diamond Queen, a 3 part series about the 60-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.^[2]

Early life[link]

Marr was born on 31 July 1959 in Glasgow, Scotland^[3] to Donald and Valerie Marr. His father was an investment trust manager and Marr was educated in Scotland at the independent High School of Dundee, Craigflower School and at Loretto, also an independent school in Musselburgh, East Lothian, where he was a member of Pinkie House. He went on to study English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge gaining first class honours.^[3][4]

He was once a member of the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. At Cambridge, Marr says he was a "raving leftie", and he acquired the nickname 'Red Andy'.^[5][6]

Newspaper career[link]

Marr joined The Scotsman as a trainee and junior business reporter in 1981. He became a parliamentary correspondent for the newspaper in 1984, moving to London at this time, and then a political correspondent in 1986. During this period, Marr met the political journalist Anthony Bevins, who became Marr's mentor and close friend. Bevins was responsible for Marr's first appointment at The Independent as a member of the newspaper's launch staff.

Marr left shortly afterwards, and joined The Economist, where he contributed the weekly "Bagehot" political column and ultimately became the magazine's political editor in 1988. Marr has remarked that his time at The Economist "changed me quite a lot" and "made me question a lot of my assumptions".^[7] He admits that while working at The Economist he earned himself the jocular nickname ‘Tearound Tessa’ because of his enthusiasm for trips to the canteen on behalf of his colleagues.^[8]

Marr returned to The Independent as the newspaper's political editor in 1992, and became its editor in 1996. His period as editor coincided with a particularly turbulent time at the paper. Faced with price cutting by the Murdoch-owned Times, sales had begun to decline, and Marr made two attempts to arrest the slide. He made use of bold 'poster-style' front pages, and then in 1996 radically re-designed the paper along a mainland European model, with Gill Sans headline fonts, and stories being themed and grouped together, rather than according to strict news value. This tinkering ultimately proved disastrous. The limited advertising budget meant the paper's re-launch struggled to get noticed, and when it did, it was mocked for reinterpreting its original marketing slogan 'It Is - Are You' to read 'It's changed - have you?'. The response from some was that many existing readers had indeed changed - to The Guardian. At the beginning of 1998 Marr was sacked. According to one version of events he was sacked after refusing to implement a further round of redundancies. The author and journalist Nick Cohen writes that Tony Blair's director of communications, Alastair Campbell demanded that David Montgomery, The Independent's publisher, sack Marr over an article which compared Blair with his predecessor John Major. Blair, in the offending article, had written "On the day we remember the legend that St George slayed a dragon to protect England, some will argue that there is another dragon to be slayed: Europe." Marr's offence was to suggest Blair was speaking in bad faith, and that the phrase "some will argue" was a weasel phrase to create distance from an otherwise xenophobic article.^[9]

Three months later he returned to the Independent. Tony O'Reilly had increased his stake in the paper and bought out owners Mirror Group. O'Reilly, who had a high regard for Marr, asked him to collaborate as co-editor with Rosie Boycott, in an arrangement whereby Marr would edit the comment pages, and Boycott would have overall control of the news pages.

Many pundits predicted the arrangement would not last, and two months later Boycott left to replace Richard Addis as editor of the Daily Express. Marr was sole editor again, but only for one week. Simon Kelner, who had worked on the paper when it was first launched accepted the editorship, and asked Marr to stay on as a political columnist. Kelner was not Marr's "cup of tea" Marr observed later, and he left the paper for the final time in May 1998.^[10]

At the BBC[link]

Marr wrote as a columnist for The Daily Express and The Observer before being appointed BBC Political Editor in May 2000. Like his predecessor-but-one John Cole and his famous herringbone overcoat, he soon developed a trademark style, characterised by much gesticulation, as sent up in the comedy impersonation programme Dead Ringers where the impressionists use ridiculously long plastic arms when portraying him. He also became known and widely praised for his ability to describe the background to Westminster gossip and intrigue and explain to viewers and listeners how it would affect their lives. A great believer in the view that "politics matters", Marr championed the democratic process and saw it as part of his role as Political Editor of the BBC to help make politics meaningful and relevant for many people who tended to see politics as the preserve of a remote, largely male and middle aged Westminster clique.

Among his personal scoops as Political Editor were the second resignation of Peter Mandelson, and the interview in late 2004 in which Tony Blair told him that he would not seek a fourth term as Prime Minister should he win the forthcoming general election. Marr was criticised for some of his on air statements during this period. John Pilger claimed that Marr "rejoiced at the vindication of Blair who, he said, had promised 'to take Baghdad without a bloodbath'" during the second Iraq war in March 2003. Pilger has attacked Marr further over an interview with Tony Blair, in which Blair was promoting his memoirs. Pilger is critical towards Marr for not questioning Blair on whether he had colluded with George Bush to invade Iraq and for not bringing up the legality of the invasion.^[11]

During his time as political editor Marr assumed various presentational roles, and announced in 2005 that following the 2005 General Election, he would step down as Political Editor to spend more time with his family. He was replaced as Political Editor by Nick Robinson. In September 2005, he moved to a new role presenting the BBC's Sunday morning flagship news programme Sunday AM, known as The Andrew Marr Show since September 2007;^[12] the slot was previously filled with Breakfast with Frost and hosted by Sir David Frost. Marr also hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week.

In May and June 2007, the BBC broadcast Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain. He presented the five one-hour documentaries, and chronicled the history of Britain from 1945 to 2007. Unsold copies of the book of the series, a best seller, were recalled in March 2009 by publishers Macmillan when legal action was taken over false claims that domestic violence campaigner Erin Pizzey had been a member of The Angry Brigade terrorist group.^[13][14] According to her own account, in a Guardian interview in 2001, Pizzey had been present at a meeting when they discussed their intention of bombing Biba, a fashion store, and threatened to report their activities to the police.^[15][16] Damages were paid to Pizzey and Marr's book was republished with the error removed.^[17][18]

Marr has written several books on politics and journalism, notably state-of-the-nation reflection The Day Britain Died (2000) and My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism (2004). The former was a three-part television series shown after Newsnight on BBC Two from 31 January to 2 February 2000. He has also written several articles for the British political magazine Prospect.

In 2008, he presented the prime time BBC One series Britain From Above. The following year, he contributed a three-part series called Darwin's Dangerous Idea to the BBC Darwin Season, celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his theory of evolution. He played a small role as himself in a Doctor Who episode, "World War Three"; reporting Slitheen entering 10 Downing Street, he was noted as himself in the credits. In late 2009, BBC Two broadcast his six-part television series on British politics in the first half of the 20th century Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain.^[19]

In September 2009 on the Sunday before the Labour Party conference in Brighton, Marr interviewed Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Towards the end of the interview, Marr told Brown he wanted to ask about:^[20]

The Prime Minister responded: "No. I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics." Marr was later heavily criticised by Labour politicians,^[21] the media and fellow political journalists for what was described as a vague question which relied on its source being a singular entry on a political blog.^[22] In later interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News, John Ward, the author of the Not Born Yesterday blog, admitted that he has no proof to back up the claim.^[23]

Politics[link]

Wikinews has related news: Andrew Marr angers bloggers, describing them as 'inadequate, pimpled and single'

Marr has written about the need to remain impartial and "studiously neutral" whilst delivering news reports and "convey fact, and nothing more".^[24] Marr responded to criticism as "pernicious anti-journalism".^[25]

In the Daily Telegraph he claimed to be a libertarian when discussing his conflicting views on smoking bans.^[26] However, writing in The Guardian, he said "And the final answer, frankly, is the vigorous use of state power to coerce and repress. It may be my Presbyterian background, but I firmly believe that repression can be a great, civilising instrument for good. Stamp hard on certain 'natural' beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off. The police are first in line to be burdened further, but a new Race Relations Act will impose the will of the state on millions of other lives too."^[27]

At an October 2006 BBC seminar discussing impartiality, Marr highlighted alleged bias within the BBC. He stated: "The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities, and gay people. It has a liberal bias, not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias."^[28][29]

Marr spoke at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on 10 October 2010 about political blogging. He claimed that "[a] lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people."^[30]

Other work[link]

Marr has helped support the Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association, and was the face of a Sense direct marketing appeal. He has also been involved with the charity Common Purpose UK.^{[citation needed]} Marr is President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust.

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

Marr lives in East Sheen, London, with his wife, the political journalist Jackie Ashley of The Guardian, whom he married in August 1987 in Surrey.^[4] She is a daughter of the Labour life peer Lord Ashley of Stoke. The couple have a son and two daughters.^[31]

Privacy injunction[link]

On 28 June 2008, Richard Ingrams reported in The Independent that Marr had obtained a High Court injunction preventing disclosure in the media of "private" information. The order was anonymised, preventing press reporting. The injunction was not mentioned in the UK media until Private Eye commented on it.^[32]

On 26 April 2011, following legal action by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, an interview with Marr was published in the Daily Mail, in which he revealed that the super-injunction had covered the reporting of an extra-marital affair with a female journalist.^[33] Marr said that he had believed that a child of the journalist was his, but had learned through a DNA test that it was not. He commented: "I did not come into journalism to go around gagging journalists. Am I embarrassed by it? Yes. Am I uneasy about it? Yes. But at the time there was a crisis in my marriage and I believed there was a young child involved. I also had my own family to think about, and I believed this story was nobody else's business."^[34] Hislop had filed a court challenge earlier in April 2011, and described the super-injunction as "pretty rank".^[35]

Awards[link]

In 1995 he was named Columnist of the Year at both the What the Papers Say Awards and the British Press Awards, and received the Journalist Award in the Channel 4 Political Awards of 2001.^[36]

He was considered for honorary membership of The Coterie for 2007.^[37] Marr has received two British Academy Television Awards: the Richard Dimbleby Award at the 2004 ceremony^[38] and the award for Best Specialist Factual Programme (for his History of Modern Britain) at the 2008 ceremony.^[39]

Marr and his wife were both awarded honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University in July 2009.^[40]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Press Office — Andrew Marr — BBC biography
• 'Marr quits as BBC political chief' — BBC News'
• TV is less up itself than newspapers — The Guardian
• Transcript - The Big Idea - BBC, 1996

Map of Scotland showing the present-day committee area of Marr

Marr is one of six committee areas in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, bordering Atholl, Badenoch, Gowrie, The Mearns, Banff and Buchan.^{[citation needed]} It has a population of 34,038 (2001 Census). Someone from Marr is called a Màrnach in Scottish Gaelic.^{[citation needed]}

To the west, the mountain environment of the Cairngorms National Park sustains a well-developed tourist industry based on heritage and outdoor pursuits. Forestry and livestock farming are key industries, particularly in remoter areas. Part of the area has qualified for EU financial assistance. To the east, Marr has experienced population growth due to its strong commuter links with the city of Aberdeen.^{[citation needed]}

The committee area consists of three wards of Aberdeenshire council:

• Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside
• Banchory and Mid-Deeside
• Huntly, Strathbogie and Howe of Alford^[1]

Between them the three wards elect 10 councillors to the sixty-eight member council.^[2]

Historic district[link]

Map of Scotland showing the historic district of Marr

Marr is named after Mar, one of the historic districts of Scotland, extending from north of the Don southward to the Mounth. Like other such districts, it was under the rule of a mormaer in the Middle Ages. In the 12th century an earl (the Earl of Mar) took his place, but no definite succession of earls appears till the 13th century, nor is any connection established between them and the mormaers.

In the twelfth century Malcolm III introduced the office of sheriff to Scotland. He and his successors Edgar, Alexander I and in particular David I divided the country into sheriffdoms or shires.^[3] Marr formed the larger portion of the shire of Aberdeen, which, as Aberdeenshire, in time became one of the counties of Scotland.^[4]

References[link]

Sources[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

v t e Settlements and places of interest in Marr, Aberdeenshire Primary settlements Aboyne Alford Ballater Banchory Braemar Huntly Lumphanan Tarland Torphins Other settlements Bellabeg Bogniebrae Cairnie Corgarff Crathie Dinnet Finzean Gartly Inverey Keig Kildrummy Kincardine O'Neil Kirkton of Tough Logie Coldstone Lumsden Monymusk Potarch Rhynie Ruthven Strachan Strathdon Tornaveen Towie Tullich Yonder Bognie Ythanwells Places of interest Balmoral Castle Blelack Braemar Castle Burn O'Vat Cairn O' Mounth Cairngorms National Park Castle Forbes Corgarff Castle Craigievar Castle Crathes Castle Crathie Kirk Forest of Birse Grampian Transport Museum Huntly Castle Kildrummy Castle Lochnagar Lost Royal Deeside Royal Deeside Railway Alford Valley Railway Ythan Wells (Glenmailen) Roman Camp

v t e Areas and primary settlements in Aberdeenshire (see also: Aberdeen City) in Banff and Buchan Aberchirder Banff Fraserburgh Gardenstown Inverallochy and Cairnbulg Macduff Portsoy Rosehearty Sandhaven Whitehills in Buchan Boddam Crimond Cruden Bay Fetterangus Hatton Longside Maud Mintlaw New Deer New Pitsligo Peterhead St Combs St Fergus Strichen Stuartfield in Formartine Balmedie Cuminestown Ellon Fyvie Newburgh Oldmeldrum Pitmedden Potterton Rothienorman Tarves Turriff in Garioch Blackburn Insch Inverurie Kemnay Kintore Newmachar Westhill in Kincardine and Mearns Drumoak Fettercairn Gourdon Inverbervie Johnshaven Laurencekirk Newtonhill Portlethen St Cyrus Stonehaven in Marr Aboyne Alford Ballater Banchory Braemar Huntly Lumphanan Tarland Torphins

Coordinates: 57°13′35″N 2°46′38″W / 57.22639°N 2.77722°W / 57.22639; -2.77722

This Aberdeenshire location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

The Right Honourable Tony Blair
Blair at the World Economic Forum (2009)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 2 May 1997 – 27 June 2007
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Deputy	John Prescott
Preceded by	John Major
Succeeded by	Gordon Brown
Leader of the Opposition
In office 21 July 1994 – 2 May 1997
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	John Major
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 21 July 1994 – 24 June 2007
Deputy	John Prescott
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	Gordon Brown
Shadow Home Secretary
In office 24 July 1992 – 24 October 1994
Leader	John Smith
Preceded by	Roy Hattersley
Succeeded by	Jack Straw
Shadow Secretary of State for Employment
In office 2 November 1989 – 24 July 1992
Leader	Neil Kinnock
Preceded by	Michael Meacher
Succeeded by	Frank Dobson
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy
In office 7 June 1988 – 2 November 1989
Leader	Neil Kinnock
Preceded by	John Prescott
Succeeded by	Frank Dobson
Member of Parliament for Sedgefield
In office 9 June 1983 – 27 June 2007
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Phil Wilson
Majority	18,449 (44.5%)
Personal details
Born	Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (1953-05-06) 6 May 1953 (age 59) Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Cherie Booth (1980–present)
Children	Euan Nicky Kathryn Leo
Alma mater	St John's College, Oxford Inns of Court School of Law
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature
Website	Tony Blair Office

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953)^[1] is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He resigned from all of these positions in June 2007.

Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party used the phrases "New Labour" and "New Socialism" to define its policy, and moved away from its support of state socialism since the 1960s and created a new version of the ethical socialism that was last pursued by Clement Attlee.^[2] Critics of Blair claim that "New Labour" did not adhere to socialism as claimed, and that it effectively advocated capitalism.^[3] Blair subsequently led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. At 43 years old, he became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blair's government implemented a number of 1997 manifesto pledges, introducing the minimum wage, Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information Act, and carrying out devolution, establishing the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Blair's role as Prime Minister was particularly visible in foreign and security policy, including in Northern Ireland, where he was involved in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. From the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair strongly supported the foreign policy of US President George W. Bush, notably by participating in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister, the only person to have led the Labour Party to three consecutive general election victories, and the only Labour Prime Minister to serve consecutive terms more than one of which was at least four years long.

He was succeeded as Leader of the Labour Party on 24 June 2007 and as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 by Gordon Brown.^[4] On the day he resigned as Prime Minister, he was appointed the official Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East. In May 2008, Blair launched his Tony Blair Faith Foundation.^[5] This was followed in July 2009 by the launching of the Faith and Globalisation Initiative with Yale University in the US, Durham University in the UK and the National University of Singapore in Asia to deliver a postgraduate programme in partnership with the Foundation.^[6][7]

Background and family life[link]

Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland^[8] on 6 May 1953,^[1] the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair (née Corscadden). Leo Blair, the illegitimate^[9] son of two English actors, had been adopted as a baby by Glasgow shipyard worker James Blair and his wife, Mary. Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher and Orangeman who moved to Glasgow in 1916 but returned to (and later died in) Ballyshannon in 1923, where his wife, Sarah Margaret (née Lipsett), gave birth to Blair's mother, Hazel, above her family's grocery shop.^[10][11] George Corscadden was from a family of Protestant farmers in County Donegal, Ireland,^[12] who descended from Ulster-Scots settlers who took their family name from Garscadden,^{[citation needed]} now part of Glasgow.

Life as a child[link]

Blair has one elder brother, Sir William Blair, a High Court judge, and a younger sister, Sarah. Blair spent the first 19 months of his life at the family home in Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of Edinburgh. During this period, his father worked as a junior tax inspector whilst also studying for a law degree from the University of Edinburgh.^[8] In the 1950s, his family spent three and a half years in Adelaide, Australia, where his father was a lecturer in law at the University of Adelaide.^[13] The Blairs lived close to the university, in the suburb of Dulwich. The family returned to the UK in the late 1950s, living for a time with Hazel Blair's stepfather, William McClay, and her mother at their home in Stepps, near Glasgow. He spent the remainder of his childhood in Durham, England, where his father lectured at Durham University.^{[citation needed]}

Education[link]

After attending The Chorister School in Durham from 1961 to 1966,^[14] Blair boarded at Fettes College, a prestigious independent school in Edinburgh, during which time he met Charlie Falconer (a pupil at the rival Edinburgh Academy), whom he later appointed Lord Chancellor. He reportedly modelled himself on Mick Jagger.^[15] His teachers were unimpressed with him, his biographer John Rentoul, reported that "All the teachers I spoke to when researching the book said he was a complete pain in the backside and they were very glad to see the back of him."^[16] Blair was arrested at Fettes, having been mistaken for a burglar as he climbed into his dormitory using a ladder after having been out late.^[17]

Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Booth, QC.

After Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, where he attempted to find fame as a rock music promoter before reading jurisprudence at St John's College, Oxford.^[18] As a student, he played guitar and sang in a rock band called Ugly Rumours. During this time, he dated future American Psycho director Mary Harron.^[19]

He was influenced by fellow student and Anglican priest Peter Thomson, who awakened within Blair a deep concern for religious faith and left-wing politics. While Blair was at Oxford, his mother Hazel died of cancer, which greatly affected him. After graduating from Oxford in 1975 with a Second Class Honours BA in Jurisprudence, Blair became a member of Lincoln's Inn, enrolled as a pupil barrister, and met his future wife, Cherie Booth (daughter of the actor Tony Booth) at the law chambers founded by Derry Irvine (who was to be Blair's first Lord Chancellor), 11 King's Bench Walk Chambers. He appears in a number of reported cases, for example as in Nethermere (St Neots) Ltd v Gardiner^[20] where he represented employers unsuccessfully in an attempt to deny female factory workers holiday pay.

Marriage and children[link]

Blair married Cherie Booth, a Roman Catholic and future Queen's Counsel, on 29 March 1980.^[21] They have four children: Euan, Nicholas, Kathryn, and Leo.^[22][23] Leo, delivered by the Royal Surgeon/Gynaecologist Marcus Setchell, was the first legitimate child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years—since Francis Russell was born to Lord John Russell on 11 July 1849.^[24] Blair was criticised when it was discovered that one child had received private tuition from staff at Westminster School.^[25] All four children have Irish passports, by virtue of Blair's mother Hazel.^[26] The family's primary residence is in Connaught Square, and the Blairs own eight other residences.^[27]

Personal health[link]

Blair suffered from chest pains on Sunday 19 October 2003 and underwent a cardioversion at Hammersmith Hospital.^[28]

Religious faith[link]

In an interview with Michael Parkinson broadcast on ITV1 on 4 March 2006, Blair referred to the role of his Christian faith in his decision to go to war in Iraq, stating that he had prayed about the issue, and saying that God would judge him for his decision: "I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people ... and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."^[29]

A longer exploration of his faith can be found in an interview with Third Way Magazine. There he says that "I was brought up as [a Christian], but I was not in any real sense a practising one until I went to Oxford. There was an Australian priest at the same college as me who got me interested again. In a sense, it was a rediscovery of religion as something living, that was about the world around me rather than some sort of special one-to-one relationship with a remote Being on high. Suddenly I began to see its social relevance. I began to make sense of the world".^[30]

At one point Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of strategy and communications, intervened in an interview, preventing the Prime Minister from answering a question about his Christianity, explaining, "We don't do God".^[31]

Cherie Blair's friend and "spiritual guru" Carole Caplin is credited with introducing her and her husband to various New Age symbols and beliefs, including "magic pendants" known as "BioElectric Shields".^[32] The most controversial of the Blairs' New Age practices occurred when on holiday in Mexico. The couple, wearing only bathing costumes, took part in a rebirthing procedure, which involved smearing mud and fruit over each others' bodies while sitting in a steam bath.^[33]

Later on, Blair questioned the Pope's attitude towards homosexuality, arguing that religious leaders must start "rethinking" the issue.^[34] He was later rebuked by Vincent Nichols, the new archbishop of Westminster, who said that Catholic thinking was 'rather different' from the kind promoted by the former prime minister.^[35]

On 22 December 2007, it was disclosed that Blair, who in 1996, had been reprimanded by Cardinal Basil Hume for receiving Holy Communion at Mass despite not being a Catholic, in contravention of canon law,^[36] had converted to the Catholic faith, and that it was "a private matter".^[37][38] He had informed Pope Benedict XVI on 23 June 2007 that he wanted to become a Catholic. The Pope and his advisors criticised some of Blair's political actions, but followed up with a reportedly unprecedented red-carpet welcome, which included Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who would be responsible for Blair's Catholic instruction.^[39]

On 14 January 2009, Blair, upon a visit to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., described, in the guest book, his home as being 'Jerusalem'.^[40] This was followed shortly after, on the occasion of his addressing of the National Prayer Breakfast, by his discussion of the issue of religion in the world and the Middle East peace process in his address and how he spends so much of his time in the Holy Land and in the Holy City. He reported his Palestinian guide as bemoaning the fate of his nation looking to heaven and saying “Moses, Jesus, Mohammed: why did they all have to come here?" For Blair the Holy City is "a good place to reflect on religion: a source of so much inspiration; an excuse for so much evil."^[41]

According to Alastair Campbell's diary, Blair often read the Bible before taking any important decisions. He states that Blair had a "wobble" and considered changing his mind on the eve of the bombing of Iraq in 1998.^[42]

Early political career[link]

Blair joined the Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975. During the early 1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in Hackney South and Shoreditch, where he aligned himself with the "soft left" of the party. In 1982 Blair was selected as the Labour candidate in the safe Conservative seat of Beaconsfield, where there was a forthcoming by-election. Although Blair lost the Beaconsfield by-election (the only election he lost in his 25-year political career) and he lost 10% of the vote, he acquired a profile within the party. In contrast to his later centrism, Blair made it clear in a letter he wrote to Labour leader Michael Foot in July 1982, that he had "come to Socialism through Marxism" and considered himself on the left. The letter was eventually published in June 2006.^[43]

In 1983, Blair found the newly created constituency of Sedgefield, a notionally safe Labour seat near where he had grown up in Durham. The branch had not made a nomination, and Blair visited them. Several sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were interested in securing selection to fight the seat. With the crucial support of John Burton, Blair won their endorsement; at the last minute, he was added to the short list and won the selection over Les Huckfield. Burton later became Blair's agent and one of his most trusted and longest-standing allies.

Blair's election literature in the 1983 UK general election endorsed left-wing policies that Labour advocated in the early 1980s. He called for Britain to leave the EEC, though he had told his selection conference that he personally favoured continuing membership. He also supported unilateral nuclear disarmament as a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Blair was helped on the campaign trail by soap opera actress Pat Phoenix, his father-in-law's girlfriend. Blair was elected as MP for Sedgefield despite the party's landslide defeat in the general election.

In his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 6 July 1983, Blair stated, "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality."^[44][45] The Labour Party is declared in its constitution to be a democratic socialist party^[46] rather than a social democratic party; Blair himself organised this declaration of Labour to be a socialist party when he dealt with the change to the party's Clause IV in their constitution.

Once elected, Blair's political ascent was rapid. He received his first front-bench appointment in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman. In May 1985, he appeared on BBC's Question Time, arguing that the Conservative Government's Public Order White Paper was a threat to civil liberties.^[47] Blair demanded an inquiry into the Bank of England's decision to rescue the collapsed Johnson Matthey Bank in October 1985 and embarrassed the government by finding a EEC report critical of British economic policy that had been countersigned by a member of the Conservative government.^{[citation needed]} By this time, Blair was aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party (headed by leader Neil Kinnock) and was promoted after the 1987 election to the shadow Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the City of London. In 1987, he stood for election to the Shadow Cabinet, receiving 71 votes.^[48]

Blair became Shadow Home Secretary under John Smith. John Smith died suddenly in 1994 of a heart attack. Blair beat John Prescott and Margaret Beckett in the subsequent leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition. As is customary for the holder of that office, Blair was appointed a Privy Councillor.

Leader of the Labour Party[link]

Blair announced at the end of his speech at the 1994 Labour Party conference that he intended to replace Clause IV of the party's constitution with a new statement of aims and values. This involved the deletion of the party's stated commitment to "the common ownership of the means of production and exchange", which was widely interpreted as referring to wholesale nationalisation.^[49] At a special conference in April 1995, the clause was replaced by a statement that the party is 'democratic socialist'.^[49]

He inherited the Labour leadership at a time when the party was ascendant over the Tories in the opinion polls since the Tory government's reputation for monetary excellence was left in tatters by the Black Wednesday economic disaster of September 1992. Blair's election as leader saw Labour support surge higher still^[50] in spite of the continuing economic recovery and fall in unemployment that the Conservative government (led by John Major) had overseen since the end of the 1990–92 recession.^[51]

At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education, and education".^[52]

Aided by the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative government (itself deeply divided over the European Union), "New Labour" won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, ending 18 years of Conservative Party government, with the heaviest Conservative defeat since 1832.^[53]

During Smith's leadership of the Labour Party, there were discussions with Paddy Ashdown, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, about forming a coalition government if the next general election resulted in a hung parliament. After Blair became leader, these talks continued – despite virtually every opinion poll since late 1992 having shown Labour with enough support to form a majority. However, the scale of the Labour victory meant that there was ultimately never any need for a coalition.^[54]

Prime Minister[link]

Blair became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 2 May 1997, serving concurrently as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Labour Party. The 43-year old Blair became the youngest person to become Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812, at the age of 42.^[55] With victories in 1997, 2001, and 2005, Blair was the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister, the only person to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories.

Northern Ireland[link]

Blair addressing a crowd in Armagh in 1998.

His contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement (after 30 years of conflict) was widely recognised.^[56][57] Following the Omagh Bombing on 15 August 1998, by members of the Real IRA opposed to the peace process, which killed 29 people and wounded hundreds, Blair visited the County Tyrone town and met with victims at Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.^[58]

Military intervention and the War on Terror[link]

In his first six years in office Blair ordered British troops into battle five times, more than any other prime minister in British history. This included Iraq in both 1998 and 2003; Kosovo (1999); Sierra Leone (2000) and Afghanistan (2001).^[59]

The Kosovo War, which Blair had advocated on moral grounds, was initially a failure when it relied soly on air strikes; the threat of a ground offensive would convince Serbia's Slobodan Milošević to withdraw. Blair had been a major advocate for a ground offensive, which Bill Clinton was reluctant to do, and would order that 50,000 soldiers - most of the available British Army - should be made ready for action.^[60] The following year, the limited Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone would swiftly swing the tide against the rebel forces; before deployment, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone had been on the verge of collapse.^[61] Palliser had been intended as an evacuation mission but Brigadier David Richards (now General Sir) was able to convince Blair to allow him to expand the role; at the time, Richards' action was not known and Blair was assumed to be behind it.^[62] Blair also ordered Operation Barras, a highly successful SAS/Parachute Regiment strike to rescue hostages from a Sierra Leone rebel group.^[63] Historian Andrew Marr has argued that the success of ground attacks, real and threatened, over air strikes alone would be influential on how Blair planned the Iraq War, and that the success of the first three wars Blair fought "played to his sense of himself as a moral war leader".^[64] When asked in 2010 if the success of Palliser may have "embolden[ed] British politicians" to think of military action as a policy option, General Sir David Richards would admit there "might be something in that".^[62]

From the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair strongly supported the foreign policy of George W. Bush, participating in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq. The invasion of Iraq was particularly controversial, as it attracted widespread public opposition and 139 of Blair's MPs opposed it.^[65] As a result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the circumstances in which it was decided upon. Alastair Campbell described Blair's statement that the intelligence on WMDs was "beyond doubt" as his "assessment of the assessment that was given to him."^[66] In 2009, Blair stated that he would have supported removing Saddam Hussein from power even in the face of proof that he had no such weapons.^[67] Playwright Harold Pinter and former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad accused Blair of war crimes.^[68][69] Testifying before the Iraq Inquiry on 29 January 2010, Blair said Saddam was a "monster and I believe he threatened not just the region but the world."^[70] Blair said that British and American attitude towards Saddam Hussein had "changed dramatically" after 11 September attacks. Blair denied that he would have supported the invasion of Iraq even if he had thought Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. He said he believed the world was safer as a result of the invasion.^[71] He also said that there was "no real difference between wanting regime change and wanting Iraq to disarm: regime change was US policy because Iraq was in breach of its UN obligations."^[72]

Relationship with Parliament[link]

One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the then twice-weekly 15-minute sessions of Prime Minister's Questions held on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a single 30-minute session on Wednesdays. In addition to PMQs, Blair held monthly press conferences at which he fielded questions from journalists^[73][74] and – from 2002 – broke precedent by agreeing to give evidence twice yearly before the most senior Commons select committee, The Liaison Committee.^[75] Blair was sometimes perceived as paying insufficient attention both to the views of his own Cabinet colleagues and to those of the House of Commons.^[76] His style was sometimes criticised as not that of a prime minister and head of government, which he was, but of a president and head of state—which he was not.^[77] Blair was accused of excessive reliance on spin.^[78] He is the first British Prime Minister to have been formally questioned by police, though not under caution, while still in office.^[79]

Events prior to resignation[link]

As the casualties of the Iraq War mounted, Blair was accused of misleading Parliament,^[80][81] and his popularity dropped dramatically.^[82][83] The Labour party's overall majority in the 2005 general election was reduced to 66. As a combined result of the Blair-Brown pact, Iraq war and low approval ratings, pressure built up within the Labour party for Blair to resign.^[84][85] On 7 September 2006, Blair publicly stated he would step down as party leader by the time of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference held 10–13 September 2007,^[86] having promised to serve a full term during the previous general election campaign. On 10 May 2007, during a speech at the Trimdon Labour Club, Blair announced his intention to resign as both Labour Party leader and Prime Minister. At a special party conference in Manchester on 24 June 2007, he formally handed over the leadership of the Labour Party to Gordon Brown, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer.^[4] Blair tendered his resignation on 27 June 2007 and his successor, Gordon Brown assumed office the same afternoon. He also resigned his seat in the House of Commons in the traditional form of accepting the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds to which he was appointed by Gordon Brown in one of the latter's last acts as Chancellor of the Exchequer.^[87] The resulting Sedgefield by-election was won by Labour's candidate, Phil Wilson. Blair decided not to issue a list of Resignation Honours, making him the first Prime Minister of the modern era not to do so.^[88]

Policies[link]

In 2001, Blair said, "We are a left of centre party, pursuing economic prosperity and social justice as partners and not as opposites".^[89] Blair has rarely applied such labels to himself, but he promised before the 1997 election that New Labour would govern "from the radical centre", and according to one lifelong Labour Party member, has always described himself as a social democrat.^[90] However, Labour Party backbenchers and other left wing critics typically place Blair to the right of centre.^[91] A YouGov opinion poll in 2005 also found that a small majority of British voters, including many New Labour supporters, place Blair on the right of the political spectrum.^[92][93] The Financial Times on the other hand has argued that Blair is not conservative, but instead a populist.^[94] The new Clause IV of the Labour Party's constitution defines the party as "Democratic Socialist".

Critics and admirers tend to agree that Blair's electoral success was based on his ability to occupy the centre ground and appeal to voters across the political spectrum, to the extent that he has been fundamentally at odds with traditional Labour Party values.^[95] Some left wing critics have argued that Blair has overseen the final stage of a long term shift of the Labour Party to the right, and that very little now remains of a Labour Left.^[96][97] There is also evidence that Blair's long term dominance of the centre has forced his Conservative opponents to shift a long distance to the left, in order to challenge his hegemony there.^[98][99]

Blair has raised taxes (but did not increase income tax for high-earners^{[citation needed]}); introduced a minimum wage and some new employment rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher's anti-trade union legislation^{[citation needed]}); introduced significant constitutional reforms; promoted new rights for gay people in the Civil Partnership Act 2004; and signed treaties integrating Britain more closely with the EU. He introduced substantial market-based reforms in the education and health sectors; introduced student tuition fees; sought to reduce certain categories of welfare payments, and introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card legislation.^{[citation needed]} Under Blair's government the amount of new legislation increased^[100] which attracted criticism.^[101] Blair increased police powers by adding to the number of arrestable offences, compulsory DNA recording and the use of dispersal orders.^[102]

Environmental record[link]

Blair has criticised other governments for not doing enough to solve global climate change. In a 1997 visit to the United States, he made a comment on "great industrialised nations" that fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Again in 2003, Blair went before the United States Congress and said that climate change "cannot be ignored", insisting "we need to go beyond even Kyoto."^[103] His record at home tends to say something different. Blair and his party have promised a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide^[104] but during his term the emissions rose. The Labour Party also claimed that by 2010 10% of the energy would come from renewable resources but in fact only 3% currently does.^[105]

In 2000 Blair "flagged up" 100 million euros for green policies and urged environmentalists and businesses to work together.^[106]

Foreign policy[link]

Relationship with the United States[link]

Tony Blair and George W. Bush shake hands after their press conference in the East Room of the White House on 12 November 2004.

Along with enjoying a close relationship with Bill Clinton, Blair formed a strong political alliance with George W. Bush, particularly in the area of foreign policy. At one point, Nelson Mandela described Blair as "the U.S. foreign minister".^[107] Blair has also often openly been referred to as "Bush's poodle".^[108] Kendall Myers, a senior analyst at the State Department, reportedly said that he felt "a little ashamed" of Bush's treatment of the Prime Minister and that his attempts to influence US policy were typically ignored: "It was a done deal from the beginning, it was a one-sided relationship that was entered into with open eyes... There was nothing, no payback, no sense of reciprocity".^[109]

For his part, Bush lauded Blair and the UK. In his post-11 September speech, for example, he stated that "America has no truer friend than Great Britain".^[110]

The alliance between Bush and Blair seriously damaged Blair's standing in the eyes of many British people.^[111] Blair argued it is in Britain's interest to "protect and strengthen the bond" with the United States regardless of who is in the White House.^[112] However, a perception of one-sided compromising personal and political closeness led to serious discussion of the term "Poodle-ism" in the UK media, to describe the "Special Relationship" of the UK government and Prime Minister with the US White House and President.^[113] A revealing conversation between Bush and Blair, with the former addressing the latter as "Yo [or Yeah], Blair" was recorded when they did not know a microphone was live at the G8 conference in Russia in 2006.^[114]

Middle East policy and links with Israel[link]

According to comments in the book, Blair, written by Anthony Seldon, Blair had a deep feeling for Israel, born in part from his faith.^[115] Blair has been a long time member of the pro-Israel lobby group Labour Friends of Israel.^[116]

In 1994, Blair met Michael Levy, later Lord Levy, a pop music mogul and fundraiser.^[117] Blair and Levy became close friends and tennis partners.

During his first visit to Israel, Blair thought the Israelis bugged him in his car. He also went on to claim that the Israeli prime minister was merely an "armour-plated bullshitter".^[118]

Levy ran the Labour Leader's Office Fund to finance Blair's campaign before the 1997 General Election and raised £12m towards Labour’s landslide victory, Levy was rewarded with a peerage, and in 2002, Blair appointed Levy as his personal envoy to the Middle East. Levy praised Blair for his 'solid and committed support of the State of Israel'.^[119][120] Tam Dalyell, while Father of the House of Commons, suggested in 2003 that Blair's foreign policy decisions were unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers, including Levy and Peter Mandelson.^[121]

Blair, on coming to office, had been 'cool towards the right-wing Netanyahu government'.^[122] After the election in 1999 of Ehud Barak, with whom Blair forged a close relationship, he became much more sympathetic to Israel.^[122] From 2001 Blair also built up a relationship with Barak's successor, Ariel Sharon, and responded positively to Arafat, whom he had met thirteen times since becoming prime minister and regarded as essential to future negotiations.^[122] In 2004, 50 former diplomats, including ambassadors to Baghdad and Tel Aviv, stated they had 'watched with deepening concern' at Britain following the US into war in Iraq in 2003. They criticised Blair's support for the Road map for peace which included the retaining of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.^[123]