Tony Blair at the IfG

About Tony Blair

In 1997 Tony Blair led Labour to victory and became the Party's longest serving Prime Minister, resigning in 2007. Under his leadership, the New Labour government implemented a number of 1997 manifesto pledges, including:

• the minimum wage
• Human Rights Act
• Freedom of Information Act.

Blair's role as Prime Minister was particularly visible in foreign and security policy, most notably conflicts with Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

Since leaving Downing Street, Tony Blair now works with a number of different organisations including the Africa Governance Initiative and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. He is also Quartet Representative to the Middle East.

Tony Blair addressed the Institute for Government on his experience in and out of office on the importance of governance in the modern world on Monday 28 June.

Blair welcomed the Institute as "a remarkable innovation and absolutely timely" and reflected on his time as Prime Minister. He gave ten lessons he had learned from his ten years in government, and his work since:

1. Governance is a debate about efficiency rather than transparency
2. We are operating in a post-ideological politics
3. People want an empowering, not controlling state
4. The centre needs to drive, but not deliver, systemic change
5. Departments should be smaller, strategic and oriented around delivery
6. Systemic change is essential in today's world - as the private sector demonstrates
7. The best change and delivery begins with the right conceptual analysis
8. The best analysis is based on facts and interaction with the front line
9. The people you appoint matter dramatically - private sector skillsets are needed
10. Countries can learn from each other

Following his speech, he was interviewed by Senior Fellow Peter Riddell and fielded questions from the audience.