Tony Blair

He was a singer in a rock band, a barkeeper in Paris, an amateur actor and a lawyer - and now since the first of May 1997, he's the Prime Minister. Born in 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland, educated at Oxford, joined the Labour Party in 1975. In 1983, he was elected to the House of Commons, where he became, just a year later, the opposition spokesman for finance and economics. In 1988, his party elected him to the Shadow Cabinet, first as Shadow Secretary for Energy, then as Employment Secretary and finally in 1992 as Home Secretary. In 1994, Blair became the leader of the Labour Party, which he reformed radically at a special party plenary in 1995 and hence renamed New Labour. Blair is one of the dynamic New Politicians and his name is mentioned in the same breath as Kennedy and Clinton.

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