Honeymoon period

He continued to rule over his party with an iron will, battling to impose his own choice of candidates in the first London mayoral contest and devolved assembly elections and ensuring ministers remained "on message" at all times.
Wary of the civil service's ability to deliver his policy goals, he centralised power in Downing Street. He preferred to make decisions with a small band of trusted advisors, rather than through more formal Cabinet procedures, prompting accusations of "cronyism" and claims he was running a presidential style of government.

The public backlash against Iraq prompted thoughts of quitting


The media manipulation techniques that had served him so well in opposition were also beginning to earn his government a reputation for "spin".

But Blair's personality - and his ability to connect with people through television - continued to be central to Labour's appeal.
Within weeks of being elected, he delivered a halting, emotionally-charged eulogy to Princess Diana, on the morning of her death.
It was a performance which seemed to capture the public mood. He would later insist that the phrase "the people's princess" was his own and not Alastair Campbell's invention, as cynics claimed.

Euro decision

Then, when he was engulfed by his first party funding scandal, accused of offering favours in return for a £1m donation from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, he again took to the airwaves, pleading with the public to keep their faith in him.

"I think most people who have dealt with me, think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy and I am," he told the BBC's John Humphrys.
Blair's honeymoon period with the electorate felt like it would go on forever and his popularity received a further boost in 2000, when Cherie announced that, at the age of 45, she was to become a mother again.
Leo Blair became the first legitimate child to be born to a serving prime minister in 150 years.

Blair swept to another landslide election victory in 2001, pledging to deliver improvements to health and education he had been promising since 1997.
The timidity and reliance on focus groups that had characterised much of his first term began to be replaced by more sure-footed and decisive leadership.

He had already angered the left by talking about the "scars on his back" from his early, tentative attempts to make the public services more efficient.

Now he was determined to be more bold in his approach, reasoning that the unions could hardly complain about market reforms with record amounts of cash pouring into schools and hospitals.

The only cloud on Blair's horizon was his worsening relationship with Gordon Brown, which, observers said, alternated between table-thumping rows and sullen periods of silence.

Fresh mandate

Emboldened by his fresh mandate, he appointed Blairites to key positions across government, from David Blunkett at the home office to Estelle Morris at education, in an attempt to wrest control of the domestic agenda from the Treasury.

But it was Brown, who was said to be increasingly obsessed with becoming prime minister, that held all the aces when it came to the one thing Blair really wanted.

He had long planned to take Britain into the euro, believing it would define his legacy and finally place Britain at the "heart of Europe" after years on the margins under the Conservatives.

But Brown was less convinced of the case for joining the euro and, crucially, he had seized control of the entry process, devising five "economic tests" that had to be passed before Britain ditched the pound.
A referendum was promised for 2003, but by then the economic argument for the euro had been lost. The five tests had not been passed, Brown decreed, and the single currency was kicked into the long grass, along with Blair's dreams of a European legacy.

Iraq

But by then Blair had found another, larger mission - one that really would write his name into the history books, for better or worse.

Blair had always taken a single-minded approach to foreign policy. He appeared to enjoy the company of the no-nonsense men of action he found in the military.

They made a refreshing change from the naturally cautious civil servants that surrounded him in Downing Street - or the left-wing MPs and union leaders who it seemed to him were forever trying to stand in the way of progress.

Early successes in Sierra Leone and Kosovo convinced Blair of the value of military action in pursuit of humanitarian aims.

The Blairs' marriage has remained solid throughout

Colleagues said his Christian faith gave him a clearer sense of moral purpose than many of those around him - but it was not a subject he was ever comfortable talking about in public.

He had forged a close relationship with US President Bill Clinton during his first term in office, with whom he shared a centre-left political philosophy.
But to the surprise and dismay of many in his own party, including his loyal deputy John Prescott, he formed an even closer bond with Clinton's successor, the Republican George W Bush.

The 11 September attacks moved the relationship on to a different level.

Failure
Blair toured the world, shoring up support for the Bush administration, utterly convinced of his own powers of persuasion and advocacy; instinctively believing Britain's place was at America's side in her hour of need.

But it was the 2003 decision to invade Iraq - without a UN mandate and in the teeth of bitter opposition at home and abroad - that would link the two leaders together in the public mind for ever.

Blair had drawn on every last ounce of his persuasive skill to make the case for war to MPs and the wider public.

Blair and Brown buried the hatchet for the 2005 election campaign

But the subsequent failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq appeared to confirm many people's worst suspicions about him - that he relied too much on spin and was not to be trusted.

In the public backlash that followed he briefly considered quitting.
He was persuaded to carry on by Cabinet supporters but in October 2004 he surprised everyone by announcing he would not seek a fourth term in office if he won the next election.

The announcement had been designed to end speculation about his health - he had undergone an operation to correct an irregular heart beat.

'Lame duck'

But it only succeeded in sparking more damaging speculation about his departure date, leading opponents to brand him a "lame duck" premier.
For the 2005 general election campaign, Alastair Campbell devised what came to be known as the "masochism strategy", with Blair allowing voters to vent their anger about Iraq at him in a series of TV debates.
He became the first Labour leader to win three consecutive terms in office but any elation was short-lived. His share of the popular vote was the lowest on record for any prime minister.

His self-belief and powers of persuasion remained undimmed. Over one remarkable 24 hour period, he flew to Singapore to help London land the 2012 Olympics - punching the air with glee as he did so - before flying back to Gleneagles, in Scotland, to unveil a debt relief package for Africa.
They were the two of the biggest achievements of his premiership.

Blair's final conference speech was an emotional occasion

But they were instantly overshadowed by the 7 July attack on the London transport system - the first suicide attacks mainland Britain had ever witnessed.

His opinion poll ratings improved in the immediate aftermath of 7 July, as he once again proved his ability to capture the nation's mood in a time of crisis.

But when a bombers' taped testimony was released blaming the attack on Blair's foreign policy, it threw the spotlight back on to Iraq and his refusal to apologise for what his opponents saw as a terrible miscalculation.
Blair was convinced Britain was engaged, with America, in a global "war on terror" but he was having trouble bringing many in his party with him.

Final straw
When he failed to condemn Israel's bombing of Lebanon, once again standing four square with George Bush in the face of mounting criticism around the world, it was the final straw for many normally loyal Labour MPs.
A series of resignations by junior ministers, who believed his failure to name a departure date was damaging the party, underlined his weakened position and he was forced to announce he would be gone by September 2007.
It was not, he confessed, the way he had wanted it to end.
Tony Blair has been Sedgefield's MP for nearly 25 years

In his own mind, and that of his supporters, he was a prime minister at the peak of his powers.
His extraordinary farewell speech at the 2006 party conference in Manchester reminded even his harshest Labour Party critics what they would be losing when he was gone. The charisma that had served him so well over the years was still intact.
The difference was that he no longer agonised over his own popularity. It was enough for him to know that he had "done the right thing".
His final months in office were dogged by a police investigation into allegations he had nominated party donors for peerages.
He became the first serving prime minister to be interviewed as part of a police investigation, although Downing Street was keen to stress he was being treated as a witness.
The affair had its origins before the 2005 general election when Blair - concerned by the size of the Tories' war chest - sought massive loans from a series of wealthy individuals, which he kept secret from all but a few members of his inner circle. Even Labour's treasurer was kept in the dark.

Four of the lenders were subsequently nominated for peerages, but were rejected by the independent appointments' commission, sparking opposition claims they had been "sold" honours.

Blair was accused of flouting his own rules on party funding, introduced as part of his drive to "clean up" politics.

Parliamentary standards commissioner Sir Alastair Graham accused him of Destroying trust in politics, saying the issue would be associated with his time in office in the way "sleaze" was with John Major.
But rather than pleading to be trusted, as he had in 1997 during the Bernie Ecclestone affair, Blair simply refused to talk about the allegations.
"I am not going to beg for my character in front of anyone. People can make up their own mind about me," he told the BBC in February.

Conviction politician

He said he had "a deep respect for the British people and it's been an honour and privilege to lead them". But he said he had "changed" over the past 10 years. He was a "different sort of person" now, who was less concerned about being "liked".
Blair had been hardened by a decade in office.
He had become a conviction politician - a very different character to the one that had first walked into Downing Street in 1997, guitar case in hand.

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~Useless youth if not useful for Pakistan~