History of Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born at Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 6 May 1953.

Blair joined the Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975.

He graduated from Oxford at the age of 22 in 1975 with a second-class Honours B.A. in Jurisprudence.

At the age of thirty, he was elected as MP for Sedgefield in 1983; despite the party's landslide defeat at the general election.

Blair defeated 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.

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.

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.

Blair tendered his resignation on 27 June 2007 and Brown assumed office during the same afternoon.