Tony Blair

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Tony Blair served as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from May of 1997 to June 2007. He was also the leader of Britain's Labour Party (1994 to 2007) and the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield, England (1983 to 2007). He is currently serving as the Middle East Quartet Representative. The Quartet is made up of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

During his ten years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair transformed Britain’s public services through a programme of investment and reform in schools and hospitals. More children achieving better school results, faster access to healthcare, improved survival rates for cancer and coronary heart disease.

Mr. Blair has always been a strong advocate of a values-based, activist and multilateralist foreign policy. That is, an agenda that combined tackling terrorism and intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, with action on issues like climate change, global poverty, Africa and the Middle East Peace Process.

On Africa,  Mr.  Blair pioneered a new model - one of partnership and support, not donor and debtor. This new partnership was based on aid, trade debt relief, governance and conflict prevention. Besides trebling aid to Africa and advocating unprecedented debt relief, Mr.  Blair helped ensure that Africa has a voice and a place at the top of the international agenda. Africa is now a central feature of all international discussions – not least of the G8 plus 5. The developed world works in partnership with Africa. It is a continent which has more hope now than it did ten years ago, but also with big challenges.

Mr. Blair is widely recognised for his contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping jointly to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement and deliver power sharing government.