Category Archives: Tony Blair

Pat McFadden: the most powerful Labour politician most have never heard of

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Role preparing for election will see McFadden shape party’s direction, but it will likely be done quietly

Pat McFadden is the most powerful Labour politician most people have never heard of. As Rachel Reeves’ No 2 in the shadow Treasury team, with responsibility for Labour’s public spending plans, he could derail the dreams of shadow cabinet colleagues with just a raised eyebrow.

In his new role preparing for the election campaign and – should Labour win it – running the Cabinet Office, he assumes even greater responsibility for the direction of Keir Starmer’s party. Yet much of it is likely to be done quietly, and efficiently, behind the scenes.

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Tony Blair Institute continued taking money from Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi murder

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Blair defends continuing partnership with kingdom despite ‘anxieties’ after 2018 assassination of journalist

Tony Blair’s institute has continued to advise and receive money from the government of Saudi Arabia since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it has emerged.

The Sunday Times reported the former prime minister’s organisation is involved in a multimillion-pound partnership helping with a modernisation drive in the country led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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Tributes paid to ‘courageous, fearless, principled’ Labour MP Ann Clwyd

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She represented her Cynon Valley constituency in South Wales for 35 years, eventually becoming the oldest woman to sit in the House of Commons

Labour leaders past and present have led the tributes to the long-standing former MP Ann Clwyd after it was announced that she had died at the age of 86.

Clwyd represented her Cynon Valley constituency in South Wales for 35 years, eventually becoming the oldest woman to sit in the House of Commons before she stood down at the 2019 election. Clwyd was first elected in a byelection in 1984 and had already served as an MEP for Mid and West Wales for five years in the European parliament.

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Tony Blair sought to avoid reports of ‘snuggling up’ to Berlusconi, files show

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Envoy urged No 10 to exploit opportunities presented by tycoon’s premiership while ‘holding our noses’, archives reveal

Tony Blair sought to avoid unwelcome headlines suggesting he was “snuggling up” to Silvio Berlusconi by not inviting media lobby correspondents to a UK-Italy summit in Rome, newly released documents reveal.

Before the February 2002 bilateral, Britain’s ambassador to Rome, John Shepherd, told the government it had a “real opportunity” to exploit the Italian prime minister’s “orientations in Europe in support of UK interests, holding our noses and staying alert to the risks as we do”.

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Keir Starmer: ‘We can’t win power by spending. We need to reform and create wealth’

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Exclusive: Labour leader urges left to ‘care more about growth’ and rules out spending ‘vast sums of money’

Labour will only succeed in winning power and rebuilding Britain if it prioritises economic growth, wealth creation and radical reform of public services over reckless spending promises, says Keir Starmer.

With four days to go before a crucial set of parliamentary byelections, the Labour leader delivers the most robust defence to date of his strategy for returning his party to power after 13 years, in an exclusive article for the Observer. Starmer takes on, directly, those who say his agenda is dull and uninspiring, insisting that the hard grind of rebuilding economic credibility must come first, as opposed to Labour retreating to its normal “comfort zone” of promising “vast sums of money”.

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Tony Blair urges expanded role for private sector as NHS turns 75

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Former PM says service needs radical reform, including pointing patients to private healthcare offers

The NHS must undergo radical change or it will continue to decline and lose public support, Tony Blair has argued on the service’s 75th anniversary.

It must embrace a revolution in technology to reshape its relationship with patients and make much more use of private healthcare providers to cut waiting times, the former Labour prime minister says.

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‘A tour de force’: tributes pour in for Margaret McDonagh, linchpin of Tony Blair’s New Labour

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Party’s first female general secretary, who has died aged 61, was essential part of team behind party’s 1997 landslide victory

Margaret McDonagh, Labour’s first female general secretary, has been hailed as a “tour de force” and an essential part of the team that secured the 1997 landslide election victory for the party, after it was announced that she had died at the age of 61.

Baroness McDonagh, who was elevated to the House of Lords in 2004, was, in effect, Peter Mandelson’s deputy during the 1997 election and went on to oversee a second dominant campaign in 2001. She became the party’s general secretary in 1998. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021.

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‘I’ll be bolder than Blair on public service reform,’ says Keir Starmer

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Leader pledges a radical, reforming Labour government with aid to first-time buyers and a revamp of tuition fees among the party’s targets

• Read more: ‘I want Labour to be the party of home ownership,’ says Starmer

Keir Starmer today pledges to lead a radical, reforming Labour government that is bolder than Tony Blair’s on public service reform, as he announces plans to accelerate housing building and get more young people on to the property ladder.

In an interview with the Observer before Thursday’s local elections, the Labour leader insists he will more than match Blair for radical ideas on overhauling public services including the NHS. “This will be a bold and reforming Labour government bringing about real change that I hope will be felt through the generations,” Starmer said.

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NHS workers expected to be offered one-off payments worth up to 6% as part of revised pay offer – UK politics live

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Health secretary expected to announce a formal pay offer to key unions later today

Sinn Féin’s US fundraising arm has caused a row by calling for a referendum on Irish unity in adverts in the New York Times, Washington Post and other US publications.

The half-page ads were paid for by Friends of Sinn Féin and ran on Wednesday urging support for unity referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. “It is time to agree on a date,” it said. “Let the people have their say.”

They’re ads from Irish American organisations whose view on reunification is well known and held for a very long time and they take out ads every year. So, the focus now needs to be on getting back to work [at Stormont].

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Long shadow of US invasion of Iraq still looms over international order

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‘Tell me, how does this end?’ asked US general David Petraeus during first push to Baghdad in 2003

The French statesman Georges Clemenceau once said: “War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.” In the case of the invasion of Iraq, however, the war that began 20 years ago started in victory and has ended in a series of catastrophes.

The main US military pullout from Iraq was ultimately completed by 2011, finally answering the question posed by Gen David Petraeus during that first push to Baghdad in 2003: “Tell me, how does this end?” Yet the long shadow of the invasion still looms over the international order, staining the reputation of those who instigated it and the political process itself, and dealing a heavy blow to the self-confidence that the west felt in the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Lord Sainsbury returns to the Labour fold with £2m donation

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The former chair of the supermarket chain was a big donor to Blair and Brown but cut off his support under Corbyn

Keir Starmer’s election war chest has been given an extraordinary boost after one of the biggest New Labour-era donors returned to the party fold with a £2m donation, the Observer can reveal.

David Sainsbury, who was consistently one of the largest donors under the last Labour government before withdrawing his support, has now renewed his backing with his first multimillion-pound donation since 2016.

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Sunak suggests MPs will vote on proposed NI protocol deal and accuses Starmer of wanting to ‘surrender’ to EU – UK politics live

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Latest updates: PM says Commons will be given a chance to ‘express its view’ on any final deal

British Steel has announced the closure of the coking ovens at its Scunthorpe works with the loss of 260 jobs, my colleague Jasper Jolly reports.

Graeme Wearden has reaction to this on his business live blog.

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Newly released files reveal plan to move Millennium Dome to Swindon

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Labour government received bid to relocate controversial London building before it was rebranded as the O2

The “Swindon Dome” does have a ring to it.

It has emerged Tony Blair’s government received a proposition to move the Millennium Dome – later redeveloped and rebranded as the O2 – to Swindon.

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Blair aide feared 1997 cabinet portrait would look ‘triumphalist’

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National Archives documents show concerns raised over Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s proposal

Downing Street feared that a group portrait of Tony Blair’s cabinet that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery wanted to commission to mark New Labour’s 1997 election victory would look “triumphalist” and be unlikely to win votes in Scotland, newly released documents reveal.

The gallery proposed a portrait by Peter Howson, a distinguished member of the new wave of expressionist artists who emerged from the Glasgow School of Art in the 80s, and was willing to pay. With the fee likely to be “substantial”, Downing Street aides were also concerned about negative coverage if any public funds were used, the documents released by the National Archives show.

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Blair government had misgivings about Mandela mediation role over Lockerbie

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Files show Downing Street felt former South African leader’s attempt to mediate was ‘unlikely to be helpful’

Downing Street believed Nelson Mandela’s attempt to play mediator between it and the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi over the question of compensation after the Lockerbie bombing was “unlikely to be helpful”, documents reveal.

But despite misgivings, No 10 aides did not rule out using Mandela “back against [Gaddafi] if Libya rejected a reasonable offer”, the documents released by the National Archives in the UK show.

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Blair asked Bush during first phone call if he could call him by first name

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Archives reveal PM’s early attempts to establish personal relationship with president after 2000 US election

Tony Blair moved swiftly to place his relationship with George W Bush on a personal footing after the Republican won the 2000 US presidential election, asking him “early on” in their first telephone call if he could call him by his first name.

“Bush warmly assented (but stuck himself with addressing the prime minister as ‘Sir’),” according to a note of their call, which is among government files released to the National Archives. Blair was the first foreign leader to call to congratulate the president-elect. Michael Tatham, a British diplomat, noted that the eight-minute conversation had established “as good a rapport as one could hope for” from such a short call.

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Euan Blair firm gets licence to award degrees

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Multiverse, founded by son of former PM, is first apprenticeship provider allowed to award degrees

Tony Blair was the prime minister who met his aim of enrolling more than half of all young people in university by this century. Now his son is pioneering a way of awarding degrees with no need for a university at all.

Euan Blair’s company, Multiverse, has become the first apprenticeship provider granted a licence to award degrees on the job.

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Blair urged Kuwait to buy UK artillery as Gulf war payback, papers show

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Notes from late 1990s show UK government believed it was due contract in recognition of defence of Kuwait

Tony Blair urged Kuwait to buy the UK’s latest artillery as payback for supporting the country during the Gulf war, newly released papers reveal.

Blair lobbied Crown Prince Sheikh Sa’ad between 1998 and 1999, including calling in on him during a brief stopover on a flight home from South Africa.

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Tony Blair was warned repeal of anti-gay section 28 might harm election chances

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Archives reveal David Blunkett voiced concerns about overturning ban on ‘promotion’ of homosexuality

Tony Blair was warned about his government’s commitment to overturning a ban on the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools in the run-up to the 2001 general election, previously classified records show.

David Blunkett, then the education secretary, twice wrote to the prime minister to voice his concerns regarding the furore over section 28. It followed months of debate over potential changes to same-sex education in schools.

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