'''Anthony Charles Lynton Blair''' PC, MP (born 6 May 1953)
is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the UK Civil Service, Leader of the UK Labour Party, and Member of the UK Parliament for the constituency of Sedgefield in North East England. As a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom he is also a Privy Counsellor. As First Lord of the Treasury, his official residence is 10 Downing Street in London, UK.
Blair became leader of the British Labour Party in July 1994 following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election on 1 May, ending 18 years of government by the UK's centre-right Conservative Party. Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister, the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories and the only Labour prime minister to serve more than one full consecutive term. He was the youngest person to attain the office of Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812.
[http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/page4.asp Biography: The Prime Minister Tony Charles Lynton Blair, 10 Downing Street. Retrieved 15 May 2006.]Together with Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson, Blair is both credited with and blamed for moving the Labour Party towards the centre of British politics, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish his pro-market policies from the more collectivist policies which the party had espoused in the past. This change is comparable to the centrist reforms in the American Democratic Party associated with Bill Clinton and the New Democrats, relative to the political and cultural differences between British and American society. Blair has described his political philosophy as "modern social democracy" and "the third way".
Blair has strongly supported a number of aspects of US foreign policy, notably by participating in the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. He has encountered fierce criticism as a result, and the circumstances in which he took Britain to war in Iraq have caused many opponents of the war to perceive him as dishonest.
In October 2004, Blair stated that he would not serve a fourth term as Prime Minister. This has led to speculation as to how long his leadership would continue; by law the next general election must be held by 3 June 2010. On 14 May 2006, the ''Independent on Sunday'' reported that Blair had privately assured ministers that he would step down in the summer of 2007
[Francis Elliott (14 May 2006). http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article449000.ece I'll step down next summer, Blair tells cabinet ministers. The Independent. Accessed on 19 May 2006.]. It is widely
