II.

Early Life and Political Career

Born Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, he was educated at schools in Durham, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland. He then studied law at St. John’s College in Oxford, England, before becoming a lawyer specializing in trade union and industrial law in 1976.

Blair began his political career in 1983, when he was elected to the British Parliament as a member of the Labour Party. He quickly advanced to the party’s front ranks during the Conservative administration of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990), when Labour was in the opposition. He won the favor of Labour leaders Neil Kinnock and John Smith, who believed Blair’s moderate positions would revive popular support for the party. Since the 1979 general elections, British voters had increasingly turned away from Labour and its traditional pro-trade union policies.

From 1984 to 1987 Blair was opposition spokesman on treasury and economic affairs. He then moved to various posts in the Departments of Trade and Industry (1987), Energy (1988-1989), and Employment (1989-1992). In 1992 Blair was promoted again, taking charge of domestic issues in the Labour Party’s counterpart to the governing Conservative cabinet.

Blair was elected to lead the Labour Party following the death of John Smith in 1994 in the first fully democratic elections to the post. He soon established a reputation as a determined reformer and firm leader, confronting established factions and contentious policy issues within the party. Almost immediately, Blair began working to make the party more mainstream, de-emphasizing its traditional ties to labor and trade unions in an effort to broaden the party’s membership. In October 1994 Blair proposed revising the party constitution, especially Clause IV, which called for extensive nationalization of the British economy. He secured this revision in 1995 amid considerable internal dissent.

Over the next two years the “New Labour” party, as Blair called it, rapidly gained in popularity. At the same time, internal divisions within the Conservative Party and a series of scandals involving Conservative ministers undermined support for the administration of Thatcher’s successor, John Major.

The Labour Party’s rising popularity culminated in a landslide victory for Blair and Labour in the May 1997 general elections. Labour had its best showing in the history of the party, winning nearly 45 percent of the vote and claiming 419 seats and a 179-seat majority in the 659-seat House of Commons.