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Leader of the Opposition Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Policies Appointments First ministry and term (May 1997 – June 2001)
Second ministry and term (June 2001 – May 2005)
Third ministry and term (May 2005 – June 2007)
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InBritish politics,Blairism is the political ideology ofTony Blair, the former leader of theLabour Party andPrime Minister between 1997 and 2007, and those that support him, known asBlairites. It entered theNew Penguin English Dictionary in 2000.[1] Elements of the ideology include investment in public services, expansionary efforts in education to encouragesocial mobility, and increased actions in terms ofmass surveillance alongside a ramping up oflaw enforcement powers, both of these latter changes advocated in the context of fightingorganized crime andterrorism. Blairites have additionally been known for their contrast with the traditional support forsocialism by those believing inleft-wing politics, with Blair himself and others speaking out against thenationalisation of major industries and against alsoheavy regulations of business operations. On foreign policy, Blairism is supportive ofclose relations with the United States andliberal interventionism, including advocacy for both theIraq war and theWar in Afghanistan (2001–2021).
Politically, Blair has been identified with record investment into public services, aninterventionist andAtlanticist foreign policy, support for stronger law enforcement powers, a large focus on surveillance as a means to address terrorism and a large focus on education as a means to encouragesocial mobility. In the early years (circa 1994–1997), Blairism was also associated with support forEuropean integration and particularly British participation in theEuropean single currency, though this waned after Labour took office.
The term is used in particular in contrast toBrownite, to identify those within the Labour Party who supportedGordon Brown rather than Blair. However, with Blair and Brown typically in agreement on most political issues[2] (fromIraq topublic sector reform), some commentators have noted that "the difference between Brownites and Blairites [...] is more tribal than ideological".[3] This is believed to stem from a personal disagreement between Blair and Brown over who should run for the leadership following the death ofJohn Smith in 1994. Though Brown was originally considered the senior of the two, he waited until after Smith's funeral to begin campaigning, by which point Blair had gathered too much momentum to be defeated.[4] However, in his bookWhatever it Takes,Steve Richards offered an alternate view: that there were significant disagreements between the two about relative poverty, the level of public spending and the potential for choice in public services.[5]
In a 1999 article,The Economist stated:
Mr Blair will doubtless do his duty and lavish praise on Labour's glorious past. But, in truth, Mr Blair has always displayed a marked ambivalence towards Labour history. His greatest achievement in opposition was to get the party to ditch their historic commitment to nationalisation, and to water down its traditional links with the unions. At times he has even hinted that the very foundation of the Labour Party was a mistake, since it divided "progressive" politics and led to a century dominated by the Conservatives. Mr Blair knows that all this makes many of his party faithful deeply uneasy.[6]
Blair's tenure is known for an expansion ofLGBT rights, such as the introduction ofcivil partnerships. Blair told the LGBT organisationStonewall that "what has happened is that the culture of the country has changed in a definable way" and that "it's a thing that doesn't just give me a lot of pride, but it has actually brought a lot of joy". Blair has also stated that he got up off his seat and danced upon seeing the first civil partnership ceremonies on television.[7]
The Daily Telegraph stated in April 2008 that Blair's programme, with its emphasis on "New Labour", accepted the free-market ideology ofThatcherism. The article cited deregulation, privatisation of key national industries, maintaining aflexible labour market, marginalising the role of trade unions and devolving government decision making to local authorities as evidence. He also sought a closer, better relationship with Europe, and considered joining theEuro currency, butGordon Brown was not in favour.[8]
In theBBC Four documentary filmTory! Tory! Tory!, Blair is described as personally admiringMargaret Thatcher deeply and making the decision that she would be the first outside person he formally invited to visit him in10 Downing Street.[9]
FormerConservative Prime MinisterJohn Major, who Blair defeated in a landslide at the1997 general election; was one of the original figures behind theNorthern Ireland peace process that Blair continued and both of them campaigned together in support of theGood Friday Agreement.
Blair privately called Thatcher "unhinged", a description that later became public knowledge.[10] Blair criticised the Thatcher government's record on poverty and made that a key issue for Labour economic policy. He made the goal to eradicatechild poverty in Britain within 20 years based on the fact that one-third of British children were in poverty post-Thatcher compared to the 9% rate in 1979 (although these statistics are disputed).[6]
In a 2001 speech to a Conservative election rally, Thatcher called New Labour 'rootless and soulless' saying at least Old Labour stood for certain principles, that respected them, and also said Blair does not truly believe in liberty. She also claimed the Labour government would give up theBritish pound to join the Euro.[11]
Blair also abolishedSection 28 and created morepro-European initiatives compared to Thatcher.[citation needed]
In his 2010 autobiography,A Journey, Blair remarked:
In what caused much jarring and tutting within the party, I even decided to own up to supporting changes Margaret Thatcher had made. I knew the credibility of the whole New Labour project rested on accepting that much of what she wanted to do in the 1980s was inevitable, a consequence not of ideology but of social and economic change. The way she did it was often very ideological, sometimes unnecessarily so, but that didn't alter the basic fact: Britain needed the industrial and economic reforms of the Thatcher period.[12]
Gordon Brown succeededTony Blair as Prime Minister after Brown's long tenure as theChancellor of the Exchequer. Although viewed in the media as somewhat personally close, Blair later wrote in his autobiographyA Journey that a "maddening" Brown effectivelyblackmailed him while he was in 10 Downing Street. Blair accused Brown of orchestrating the investigation into theCash-for-Honours scandal and stated that the personal animosity was so strong that it led him to frequent drinking, a big change for Blair. Blair also has told journalistAndrew Marr that as their years working together went on, co-operation became "hard going on impossible".[13]
Blair criticised the departure from much ofNew Labour ideology underGordon Brown's premiership, who blamed it forLabour's defeat in the2010 General Election:
Why did Labour lose the 2010 election? The answer to that, I'm afraid is obvious. Labour won when it was New Labour. It lost because it stopped being New Labour...Had he [Brown] pursued New Labour policy, the personal issue would still have made victory tough, but it wouldn't have been impossible. Departing from New Labour made it so. Just as the2005 election was one we were never going to lose, 2010 was one we were never going to win – once the fatal strategic decision was taken to abandon the New Labour position.[14]
TheLabour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn was seen as a departure from Blairism, and a return ofOld Labour, and was described as a 'return of the 1940s Labour Party' byThe Guardian, with its emphasis on re-nationalisation of energy, water, and railways and massive public investment in housing and the NHS.Jeremy Corbyn was critical of Blair's involvement in Iraq and voted against it at the time, garnering much support particularly from the youth vote. Labour increased its vote share by over 9% in2017, costingTheresa May her majority in Parliament, but with the party split by Brexit policy and identitarian infighting, it lost the2019 election toBoris Johnson's Conservatives.[15]
Since the election ofKeir Starmer asLeader of the Labour Party in 2020, some in the British media[who?] have noted the ideological shift from the left back to the centre, allowing comparisons to be drawn between the current policy platform of the Labour Party and its Shadow Ministers (some of whom served in the cabinets of Blair and Brown) and that of New Labour.[16]
TheNovember 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle was seen to be giving more power to Blairites in theParliamentary Labour Party. This was criticised by formerShadow Chancellor of the ExchequerJohn McDonnell.[17] In May 2022, on the 25th anniversary of Labour's landslide victory in the1997 election, Blair in a video looked back at the victory and his achievements and showed his support for Starmer.
The2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle was seen as giving even more power to Blairites within the Labour Party.[18]
Other than Blair himself, the following prominent Labour politicians are often considered Blairites, but may not identify themselves as such:
I think he was unhinged. That's the same word Tony Blair used ofMargaret Thatcher. I think Tony Blair was a bit unhinged too. I think Margaret Thatcher had her unhinged moments.
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