Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007, the Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007 and the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007. On the day he stood down as Prime Minister, he was appointed official Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
Tony Blair became the Leader of the Labour Party in July 1994 following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under Blair's leadership the party abandoned many decades-old policy goals. Labour won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, ending 18 years of rule by the Conservative Party; it was the worst Conservative defeat since 1832. Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister, the only person to have led the Labour Party to three consecutive general election victories, and the only Labour Prime Minister to serve more than one full consecutive term.
He was replaced as Leader of the Labour Party on 24 June 2007 and resigned as Prime Minister 27 June 2007. On the same day, he was appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern, thus disqualifying him as an MP. (It is impossible to resign from the UK Parliament, so this device is used for MPs wishing to step down.) Gordon Brown, Blair's Chancellor of the Exchequer during his entire ten years in office, succeeded him as Prime Minister.