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the tony blair story s01e01
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00:00:04some say you were his Lady Macbeth if anyone thinks Tony's my puppet they
00:00:09just don't understand the nature of the man
00:00:17he could always we say at home he could always talk an owl out of a tree when
00:00:25you think of Tony Blair what words spring to mind I think he's a man in denial actually
00:00:34Tony Blair a prime minister who never lost a general election he is without doubt both one
00:00:43of the most successful and one of the most controversial leaders Britain has ever had
00:00:50one way of looking at him is of thinking of him as an explorer his whole story the life story
00:01:00of
00:01:00Tony Blair is one of exploration of the world to see how far he can get
00:01:07so
00:04:03We were inside those railings, and we were pretty well cut off.
00:04:09At Fetty's, there was fagging, there was beating, there was the church.
00:04:18There was still that feeling you were being prepared to run an empire,
00:04:23to be sent off to Burma or to India or somewhere to run a tea plantation.
00:04:32Tony was very self-confident.
00:04:35He was very clever too, and I think he knew he was clever.
00:04:39Tony arrived at Fetty's on the back of a family tragedy.
00:04:44His father had a massive stroke, from which he never fully recovered.
00:04:49And any dreams his father had of being Prime Minister were over.
00:04:55I want to take you back to July 1964.
00:04:59You will remember that that's when your dad had a stroke.
00:05:03Tell me what happened.
00:05:06Well, I guess I was 10, 11 years old.
00:05:08How did it impact you, do you think?
00:05:12I don't spend a lot of time psychoanalyzing myself, but I think when I look back on it,
00:05:19it must have had an impact on my thinking about the world and life.
00:05:22You know, it was such a traumatic event.
00:05:25I remember the event of that night and that day and the next day and the days that followed so
00:05:30vividly that I get,
00:05:32of course, it makes an impact in your life and I guess it teaches you that life is fragile.
00:05:42Tony's father's speech never fully recovered.
00:05:46But at school, Tony kept this to himself.
00:05:51You never had any sense of how his father's stroke might have affected him?
00:05:57No, not really. No, we never really discussed it. It's bizarre, yeah.
00:06:03What do you think Fetis taught Tony Blair about himself?
00:06:08The school teaches you to survive.
00:06:11It knocks a lot of the emotion out of you.
00:06:14You become very insular.
00:06:17He was strong.
00:06:19And didn't really show much in the way of emotion.
00:06:21I never saw it.
00:06:22It was a bad thing to show emotion when you were at these schools.
00:06:40After Fetis, Blair goes up to Oxford.
00:06:45He studies law and sings in a rock band.
00:06:50Also in Oxford is his childhood friend Angie Hunter,
00:06:54who would go on to become one of his closest political advisers.
00:07:03So he arrived fresh-faced, fun.
00:07:06He was good-looking.
00:07:08He was fun to be with, articulate.
00:07:13And he looked like every other guy that came to Oxford in 1972,
00:07:17which basically was long hair and he had a big fur coat.
00:07:22We just became great friends.
00:07:27I want to touch on something else that happened while you were at university,
00:07:31which is a good friend of yours, took his own life.
00:07:35Ewan.
00:07:38Yes.
00:07:40So Ewan had been my dearest friend at school.
00:07:49It was a group of us.
00:07:50And he was a great guy.
00:07:51He was a wonderful, wonderful young man.
00:07:58And unfortunately, he got into drugs, I think.
00:08:04And he became sort of mentally unstable and then took his own life.
00:08:08And it had a big impact on me.
00:08:11Because he, first of all, because obviously he was a very, very dear friend.
00:08:14And secondly, because I, you know, I just felt what a waste it was,
00:08:22because he had such talent.
00:08:24He was such a clever young man with such a strong personality.
00:08:30Um, he would have done great things.
00:08:33And, er, when I, when my first son was born, you know, I, I named him after him.
00:08:44Ewan's suicide had a big impact on Tony.
00:08:47And he came back, it was at the end of the summer term,
00:08:50and I remember he came back the following term with his haircut.
00:08:55And he wasn't wearing the fur coat.
00:08:58He straightened up a lot after that.
00:09:08Tony makes his way at Oxford, doing well enough to plan for a career as a lawyer.
00:09:18In those days, of course, you made a telephone call from a telephone box
00:09:23with putting the coins in the box.
00:09:24And therefore you, you weren't every day in contact with your, your, your family as you are today.
00:09:29My mother had been ill.
00:09:30I, I knew she had cancer.
00:09:33And the family didn't want to tell me because I was doing my final exams at, at Oxford.
00:09:37They didn't want to tell me how serious it was.
00:09:43But I remember when I got off the train and my dad picked me up at the station.
00:09:48He said to me, look, you know, you should just prepare yourself for this.
00:09:53And I said, but you're not seriously telling me she's going to die.
00:09:56And he said, well, no, I'm telling you that.
00:09:58She is.
00:09:59She's in hospital and she's going to die soon.
00:10:01So that was, you know, yeah, of course.
00:10:07The thing that experience teaches you when you have an experience like this and your,
00:10:11and your parent dies when you're very young is you just realize, well,
00:10:15if, if you've got something to do with your life, you better go and do it.
00:10:18Because who knows what happens?
00:10:26It's 1982.
00:10:27I think you've got to get down.
00:10:29Hey, everybody, take a look at me.
00:10:31I've got street credibility.
00:10:32I may not have a job, but I have a good time with the boys that I meet down on
00:10:36the line.
00:10:37It's D-H-S-S.
00:10:39It's the manner of them that's given is the very best.
00:10:44I say a B-1, B-2.
00:10:47Make a claim, sign your names, all you have to do.
00:10:49It's 1982.
00:10:52Mrs Thatcher is in power.
00:10:58And the Falklands War is raging.
00:11:04The Conservatives have captured the mood of the 80s.
00:11:10Meanwhile, the Labour Party is in the doldrums.
00:11:14We've had a very long day.
00:11:19OK, you get annoyed if you like, but I need a credential to get to the conference.
00:11:27And this is their leader.
00:11:31How have you found your day here at the Begginsfield by-election?
00:11:34Well, I think it's been a pretty good day.
00:11:36First of all, we've got a wonderful candidate.
00:11:38Everybody agrees that Tony Blair is one of the very best possible candidates there could be.
00:11:44Rather a large majority, isn't it?
00:11:46Well, it's quite a job, you know.
00:11:48After leaving Oxford, Blair became a barrister.
00:11:52But now he has political ambitions.
00:11:56Running to be a Labour MP in a seat he can't win.
00:12:01Oh, that's good.
00:12:02Nice smile, isn't it?
00:12:06Anthony Charles Linton, 3,886.
00:12:15As expected, Blair loses.
00:12:28When I first met Tony, we were co-publes and rivals.
00:12:33We then became friends and we were vaguely flirting with each other.
00:12:38It was about 18 months after his mother had died.
00:12:42And I think he was still very much coming to terms with that.
00:12:47The first thing we really sort of talked about was religion.
00:12:51Both of us in different ways had a religious faith.
00:12:57Was he romantic in his courtship?
00:13:00Er, no, not very. Tony's not very romantic.
00:13:03Really?
00:13:05He's never bought me flowers, for example.
00:13:07And now he says, well, if I bought you flowers, you'd be very suspicious.
00:13:11Which is probably true.
00:13:16Tony is desperate to become a Labour MP.
00:13:19But first he has to be chosen as a candidate by a constituency Labour Party.
00:13:25He travels up and down the country, telling them all what they don't want to hear,
00:13:31that the Labour Party needs radical reform.
00:13:36He tries ten constituencies.
00:13:39All say no.
00:13:40And Tony is on the brink of giving up.
00:13:45I've always been interested in politics.
00:13:48I was interested in politics when I was 14 and, er, in class.
00:13:52I'd announced that I was going to be the first female Prime Minister.
00:13:57Cherie does get selected to fight a seat for Labour.
00:14:00So how did he cope with that?
00:14:02Er, badly.
00:14:05He felt that he had missed his chance.
00:14:08I was going to go and fight a hopeless seat, but at least I was fighting his seat.
00:14:13And there was one seat left in the country.
00:14:22With just four weeks to go before the general election,
00:14:27Sedgefield in County Durham is the only seat not yet to have selected its Labour candidate.
00:14:37I remember sitting in my house in Hackney and Cherie saying to me,
00:14:43I mean, you might as well go, I mean, why not?
00:14:46There's nothing you can lose.
00:14:58The members of the Sedgefield Labour Party will have to be convinced.
00:15:18I was very nervous.
00:15:21But by then, you know, I got quite used to the process of rejection.
00:15:28I'd been in many constituencies, tried many different things.
00:15:31You know, usually I get a long way and the moment I showed my colours I would be out.
00:15:43John said, oh, there's a guy from London coming up.
00:15:46He wants to be our next MP.
00:15:48Yeah, our champion, but we're watching the football.
00:15:51Of course, there's a long, long way to go yet, but it is a night where there will be a
00:15:57positive result,
00:15:58because at the end of 90 minutes of its level, we have extra time.
00:16:02Well, of course, the trouble was, this match went on forever.
00:16:07Extra time was paid, it was a draw.
00:16:10By which time we were quite happy and merry, you know.
00:16:16So after that we said, right, we're going to ask you some questions.
00:16:19We gave him the best drilling that we could.
00:16:22He spoke with an awfully posh voice.
00:16:25I mean, we'd always had a miners' union MP.
00:16:30And here we had this public schoolboy who went to Oxford and was a barrister.
00:16:39But we knew that night.
00:16:41I said to the lads, I said, you know, you can never say somebody will be prime minister,
00:16:47but you can say somebody is cabinet material.
00:16:50And I said, he's cabinet material.
00:16:53And Paul agreed, they all agreed.
00:16:56Well, I saw he was different.
00:16:58You know, I was young, I wanted someone younger than your average Labour MP.
00:17:02I wanted someone with a bit of go about them, and there he was sitting on the set A.
00:17:06So why not give the young lad a go?
00:17:09Wow! Tony Jumlop!
00:17:13And we had a couple more drinks.
00:17:20Blair successfully charms the Sedgefield Labour Party and becomes their MP.
00:17:32But nationally, Labour suffer a devastating defeat.
00:17:39Still, by entering Parliament, Blair fulfils his father's dream.
00:17:49Westminster's best known watering places were opening up for some new customers this evening.
00:17:53At one of them, I met some of the 150 new commons faces.
00:17:57The image of the Labour Party's got to be an image that's more dynamic, more modern, more suited to the
00:18:031980s.
00:18:04I don't actually think it's nearly so much a matter of right and left as people make it out.
00:18:09What I do think is that it's a matter of style.
00:18:12The truth is we live in a different world now.
00:18:14We live in a world where over 50% of the population in this country are owner-occupiers.
00:18:21We live in a population where there are large numbers of people now employed for service industries rather than manufacturing
00:18:28industries.
00:18:29And that means a change in attitude and a change in attitude that we've got to catch up to.
00:18:36The party elects a new leader, Neil Kinnock.
00:18:39OK, thanks for coming in.
00:18:42Who spots the potential of the new backbench MP for Sedgefield.
00:18:48I asked him if he would fulfil this role in the Treasury team.
00:18:53He was ecstatically pleased and made no secret of it.
00:19:00Do you really mean it? Do you really mean it?
00:19:02I don't think I'd ever encountered, before or afterwards, anyone who was so manifestly delighted at what he saw as
00:19:13a promotion.
00:19:20Blair befriends Gordon Brown.
00:19:23They share a room at the House of Commons.
00:19:26Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, didn't they do well?
00:19:28He did even better, got 50,000 votes more, didn't he, than he got, but both of you did extremely
00:19:33well indeed.
00:19:34They become a pair with contrasting personalities.
00:19:37I want to see a wider membership, I want to see better attention to the regional organisation,
00:19:42and I want to give more attention to the policy-making process.
00:19:45So these are things that we want to see happen.
00:19:48Did you have to... He talked of a platform once he stood, made it sound like a real election.
00:19:52Did you have to scheme, organise, assemble votes for this?
00:19:55No, because it's done in a fairly democratic way with one member...
00:19:58Well, a fairly democratic way.
00:20:00I mean very democratic. I'm just being unusually modest.
00:20:06Gordon made a huge impression on Tony because he was a much more experienced political creature.
00:20:17And I think Gordon got used to the idea that Tony was there to support him,
00:20:26by bouncing ideas off him, by discussing ideas, yes, helping him develop.
00:20:31But at the same time, the fact was that Tony was also learning from Gordon and developing his ideas,
00:20:42and they weren't always the same as Gordon's ideas.
00:20:55By 1992, almost everyone expects Labour to win the upcoming election of that year.
00:21:03We're all ready! We're all ready!
00:21:10I first met Tony Blair in March 1992, just before the general election of that year.
00:21:17I got a call from his office saying, Tony would like to meet you.
00:21:20It's the only time, I think, that a politician's actually asked to see me.
00:21:24So I booked a restaurant and we met.
00:21:26Of course, like everyone, I was overwhelmed by his charm.
00:21:32Blair was a radical, transformative politician, there's no doubt about that.
00:21:37The Labour equivalent of Margaret Thatcher and his determination to pull the Labour Party
00:21:42into a completely different mode of thinking.
00:21:44I said, well, anyway, it looks like you'll be in government in a couple of months
00:21:47because that's what everyone thought.
00:21:48And he said, oh, no, no, no, we're going to lose.
00:21:54Labour do, in fact, lose.
00:21:56And Tony now hopes that Gordon will put his hat into the ring to be the new leader.
00:22:01But Gordon throws his support behind his fellow Scot, John Smith.
00:22:08I therefore declare that John Smith is elected the leader of the Labour Party.
00:22:16And Tony's hopes that he and Gordon will transform the party are derailed.
00:22:22That was a crucial moment for Blair.
00:22:25That was the moment when the iron entered his soul.
00:22:29John Smith looks like a Labour leader who can win power.
00:22:32He's a popular and skilled political operator.
00:22:35But he has a heart condition.
00:22:41In April 1994, Tony and his wife Cherie go for a weekend in Paris.
00:22:50And it's here that Blair wakes suddenly,
00:22:54with a premonition that John Smith is about to die.
00:23:08Well, it was a rather extraordinary thing.
00:23:11I actually did wake up in the morning, and I remember I woke up,
00:23:17and I thought, you've got to prepare yourself for this.
00:23:19I think it's going to happen.
00:23:21I remember saying to Cherie, I feel it's possible this heart condition could come back.
00:23:28And I've got to think then about what happens if it does.
00:23:36And whether it really is the moment that I would go for the leadership if that did happen.
00:23:42And that was the first time we'd really properly discussed it.
00:23:45You said to her,
00:23:47If John dies, I will be leader, not Gordon.
00:23:51And somehow I think this will happen.
00:23:54I just think it will.
00:23:57Yeah, I felt this strong premonition.
00:24:01And I don't quite know, who knows how these things come into your mind like that.
00:24:05But it came into my mind with a degree of certainty that both surprised me and made me think,
00:24:11OK, who knows whether it's right or wrong, but you're going to have to think now.
00:24:16And you're going to have to think about the decision, because you know in your own mind you want to
00:24:20do it.
00:24:21And you're going to have to think how you handle Gordon, because there's going to be a huge problem for
00:24:25you and your relationship.
00:24:26And I hadn't really discussed it with him, because I was thinking, well, what's the point?
00:24:31You know, it may never happen and therefore there's no point in ending up, because I knew it would be
00:24:36a difficult conversation, because it had always been assumed that he would be the leader.
00:24:41But I thought, no, you've got to prepare yourself for this and for the conversation that will come.
00:24:59Good evening.
00:25:00The leader of the Labour Party, John Smith, died this morning in hospital after suffering a massive heart attack at
00:25:06his London home.
00:25:18It was a very extraordinary situation at the funeral because you got the absolute grief of his family and then
00:25:28the grief of the party.
00:25:31And then on the other hand, there was the inevitable thoughts of, well, what's going to happen to the party
00:25:37now?
00:25:46Yeah.
00:25:50Yeah.
00:26:16It was an incredibly intense day.
00:26:20Everybody was thinking about the succession.
00:26:33Everybody's looking around thinking,
00:26:35is he going to run for it?
00:26:37Who's going to support him?
00:26:39Is it going to be Gordon?
00:26:40Or is it going to be Tony?
00:26:50I was determined that he wasn't going to let his decency,
00:26:57thinking he should defer to Gordon,
00:27:00get in the way of what I thought was best for him
00:27:04and best for the country.
00:27:05I said to him, you've got to go for it.
00:27:09It's got to be you.
00:27:16When I met Tony, I said, of course,
00:27:18we'd have to think about this very carefully
00:27:20and work out which of them would gather the most support.
00:27:23You know, who would be the best modernisers candidate?
00:27:28Just looked at me, said,
00:27:29Peter, I'm going to do this.
00:27:32I said, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes,
00:27:33but we'll consider how, you know.
00:27:35No, he said, I'm going to do this.
00:27:52Blair and Brown engage in a series of fraught negotiations
00:27:56over which one of them will run for leader.
00:28:01They were such close, good, intimate friends.
00:28:05It was like a married couple deciding whose career
00:28:09should come first.
00:28:10I mean, Gordon would have been thinking,
00:28:12I've been betrayed by my best friend.
00:28:15I was always going to be the leader.
00:28:17I thought that was the deal.
00:28:19I'm only talking about the European...
00:28:20Okay.
00:28:21Is that okay?
00:28:22Can I just put one question to you about the leadership?
00:28:24Not at all.
00:28:24We're talking about the European elections today.
00:28:26Okay.
00:28:27What are you planning to do today, sir?
00:28:31Tony was feeling absolutely 100% determined.
00:28:34I'm going to persuade him.
00:28:38I'm going to persuade him.
00:28:39I'm going to persuade him.
00:28:44As they try to thrash out a deal,
00:28:46they have at least ten secret meetings
00:28:49that culminate in a dinner
00:28:50at a North London restaurant called Granita.
00:28:58What's your understanding of his agreement with Gordon?
00:29:02Well, first of all, there was never an agreement.
00:29:07And there were a number of meetings.
00:29:10Some of them were in my sister's house.
00:29:11And really, the deed was done before they had that meal
00:29:14in the granola or what it was called.
00:29:18Granita.
00:29:18Yes, the granita.
00:29:20Granita, that's right.
00:29:21It became a thing of legends.
00:29:22It was all sorted out there.
00:29:23But it was much more drawn out than that.
00:29:27But what was it, in essence?
00:29:31That Gordon would stand down for Tony,
00:29:34that Gordon would be Chancellor
00:29:36and he would have control over the economic policy.
00:29:43and that at some point, when Tony stood down,
00:29:49he would support Gordon to be his successor.
00:29:54The details of what was agreed are contested to this day.
00:29:59Many in Brown's camp claim Blair set a limit
00:30:03on the time he would serve as leader.
00:30:08But there was never, to my mind, in fact,
00:30:11that I said to him before he went,
00:30:15don't promise to set any kind of date.
00:30:19But Tony, being a very charming person,
00:30:22I think, can often make people think they hear
00:30:26what they want to hear.
00:30:28So I think that Gordon may well have spoken
00:30:33of a time limit
00:30:34and Tony may not have strongly disabused him of that.
00:30:38Did any part of you feel a little bit sorry for Gordon?
00:30:44No.
00:30:47It's...
00:30:48That in politics, there comes a point
00:30:53when you have to make a choice.
00:30:59I don't love having a confrontation.
00:31:02It's not my natural way.
00:31:03Contrary to, I think, sometimes the image of sort of,
00:31:07you know, he's messianic and all of that.
00:31:08No, I'm not like that.
00:31:10If I can avoid having a big fight and row,
00:31:13I'll happily avoid it.
00:31:14But I always know there comes a point when, you know,
00:31:18if it's something that really, really matters,
00:31:19you're going to have to...
00:31:22You've got to confront it.
00:31:24If I thought he was going to do the things I thought
00:31:26were necessary for the Labour Party,
00:31:27I really would have been happy to have been number two.
00:31:31But I think he found that incredibly difficult
00:31:34for understandable reasons,
00:31:37and we resolved it in the end.
00:31:40But when something like that happens,
00:31:42it changes the nature of the relationship
00:31:44and, you know, to be honest, you never fully resolve it.
00:31:48So...
00:31:51It had to be done.
00:31:59This morning, I'm announcing my candidature
00:32:02for the position of leader of the Labour Party.
00:32:11Well, Tony was always a smoothie.
00:32:20His weakness was the lack of deep thinking,
00:32:23knowledge of history.
00:32:26And I think he wants to be a big thinker,
00:32:30but that's not what he is.
00:32:32I mean, maybe we're all the same, you know,
00:32:34whatever our strength is, we want the other strength.
00:32:37His strength was certainly the personal charm
00:32:39and the communications.
00:32:42I don't think he's a great leader.
00:32:47Mr Blair, good morning.
00:32:48Good morning.
00:32:49The other two contenders for the leadership
00:32:51are prepared to serve as deputy.
00:32:53Why aren't you?
00:32:54Because I don't wish to be deputy.
00:32:55Why not?
00:32:56You're the youngest of the three with the least experience.
00:32:59Because I don't desire to be deputy leader.
00:33:01It's a very, very good post.
00:33:03I think that both of my colleagues
00:33:05will make excellent deputy leaders,
00:33:07but it's not a post I desire for myself.
00:33:09Have you really thought through the effect
00:33:12of the job you're about to take on,
00:33:14assuming you get it, upon yourself and your family?
00:33:17I've reflected upon it a great deal.
00:33:20And you've decided that the effect is worth living with,
00:33:23assuming that you can become Prime Minister?
00:33:26Yes, I have.
00:33:29It is not an easy decision
00:33:30and I am well aware of what is about to fall upon me.
00:33:36He was steely, clear.
00:33:39He had real energy and restlessness.
00:33:43It was, you know, politically exciting.
00:33:44I do remember asking him
00:33:47whether he thought he was really tough enough
00:33:50for what was coming.
00:33:51Do you think you were tough enough
00:33:52to cope with the sort of media onslaught
00:33:54that Neil Kinnock, for example, had to endure?
00:33:56I think it comes with the territory
00:33:58and I am entirely prepared for it and indeed expect it.
00:34:06Blair wins.
00:34:08And now he's leader of the Labour Party.
00:34:11APPLAUSE
00:34:14The blueprint for new Labour,
00:34:16he had it in his head right from the start.
00:34:18The idea that he was just some sort of, you know,
00:34:21line of least resistance, pretty front guy,
00:34:24could not be further from the truth.
00:34:29He assembles a formidable team
00:34:31of political operators and spin doctors.
00:34:34There were this curious combination
00:34:36of Tony being Mr. Good Guy
00:34:39and then around him,
00:34:41you had these absolutely ruthless bastards.
00:34:44Richard, you want anything tomorrow, any other day?
00:34:47Get out.
00:34:49I was being quite robust
00:34:53and I remember Tony looking, ooh.
00:34:57And I think part of him thinking,
00:35:00am I going over the top?
00:35:02But part of him thinking,
00:35:04that's what we need to do from time to time.
00:35:09Tony was quite smart
00:35:10in leaving the brutality to others.
00:35:13Together, they set about rebranding the party.
00:35:17Tony Blair.
00:35:19And in the face of staunch resistance,
00:35:21they rip up decades of Labour Party convention.
00:35:25The historic goal of another Labour government.
00:35:28Our party, New Labour.
00:35:30Our mission, New Britain.
00:35:31New Labour, New Britain.
00:35:37Blair was the revolution in his own person.
00:35:40It was like he was laying the party at his father's feet.
00:35:44He'd changed it so much
00:35:45that his father would now vote for it.
00:36:15It's July 1995.
00:36:17It's July 1995.
00:36:18It's July 1995.
00:36:18It's July 1995.
00:36:18And Blair has just flown 10,000 miles to a tropical island in Australia
00:36:23to meet the most powerful man in the British media.
00:36:27Rupert Murdoch.
00:36:33We knew there would be terrible controversy.
00:36:35We were accused of supping with the devil.
00:36:39You know, take a long spoon with you.
00:36:41That was the sort of general gist from our colleagues.
00:36:44We're having friends from ABC television.
00:36:47How are you going?
00:36:47You've come halfway around the world to talk to Rupert Murdoch and his men.
00:36:51Why is that?
00:36:52You're impersonating Diana, aren't you?
00:36:55Do you expect Mr Rupert Murdoch's papers to support you in the upcoming election?
00:37:00No, I mean, I've made it clear right from the very start.
00:37:03I'm not here to trade policy for an editorial sport.
00:37:06What Mr Murdoch's papers do is up to him.
00:37:08What the Labour Party does is up to us.
00:37:10Okay, thank you.
00:37:11Thank you very much.
00:37:12Thank you very much.
00:37:13Thanks.
00:37:14Nice to meet you.
00:37:15Quite a lot of people, Jeremy Corbyn, in the Labour Party,
00:37:24I mean, people like Roy Hattersley would say this is the move of a shrewd political operator.
00:37:29I think this smacks too much to me of an endorsement,
00:37:32and almost a craven endorsement, of the Murdoch Empire.
00:37:36I think it's a great mistake.
00:37:37My point was that he was therefore accepting the way in which Murdoch ran his papers.
00:37:45There was no sense of standing up to what Murdoch was doing to our media.
00:37:50Blair had this ability to separate himself from the political, philosophical debate around an issue,
00:38:02and go into it in a totally transactional way.
00:38:10Tony Blair said to me,
00:38:12how we treat Rupert Murdoch in power will depend on how he treats Labour in the run-up to the
00:38:20election.
00:38:21It's pretty simple, you know.
00:38:23You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
00:38:25That's what it came down to.
00:38:31Having charmed the media mogul, Blair seems equally at ease getting gushing endorsements from rock stars.
00:38:40There are seven people in this room tonight who are giving a little bit of hope to young people in
00:38:47this country.
00:38:48That is me, our kid, Bonehead, Quigsey, Alan White, Alan McGee and Tony Blair.
00:38:54And if you'd all got anything about you, you'd get up there and you'd take Tony Blair's hand, man.
00:38:59He's a man.
00:39:00Power to the people!
00:39:03I like you, Tony.
00:39:04And I like you for a very specific reason, which is that you seem to me to be like a
00:39:09real person.
00:39:10But if it's not an overly pretentious question, I mean, are you as real as you appear?
00:39:14Because it seems to me that people worry.
00:39:16They see you surrounded by what they call spin doctors,
00:39:19and they think that perhaps this realness is kind of manufactured.
00:39:24What do you think?
00:39:25Well, you can't manufacture the realness in the end.
00:39:27I mean, people have got to make a judgment on it.
00:39:29But we run a professional show in the Labour Party today.
00:39:33Yeah.
00:39:34We do things in a professional way, but it doesn't mean to say you're not real
00:39:36or you can't be a human being at the same time.
00:39:41Dad! Dad!
00:39:45Dad! Dad!
00:39:48If you don't make the time for your family, then...
00:39:51I think your politics actually becomes much less effective,
00:39:54because they keep your feet in the ground.
00:39:56They may drive you mad, but they keep you sane.
00:39:58The first time I went to see Tony Blair at his home,
00:40:02it was almost like arriving on a film set.
00:40:05You felt that everybody, whether it was Sheree Blair and the children
00:40:09and the coffee maker and all the rest of it,
00:40:11you felt you were seeing a brilliantly orchestrated performance
00:40:16of what they thought that a new Labour leader, how he ought to live
00:40:20and what his children ought to look like
00:40:21and what his wife ought to look like.
00:40:36Tony and the family, they did a brilliant imposture of being normal human beings.
00:40:41Now, actually, anybody who was on his way to becoming Prime Minister
00:40:44is not a normal human being, but they played the game brilliantly.
00:40:47You have obviously also had to think through the possibility
00:40:50of being in Number 10 Downing Street, both of you.
00:40:53You take it stage by stage, actually.
00:40:55I'm a great believer in the old Mrs Beacon recipe for rabbit stew,
00:41:00first catch your rabbit.
00:41:03Sheree, do you have sort of daunting feelings about that?
00:41:06I've never even been near Downing Street, so I've got no idea.
00:41:11I've never even stood outside the door.
00:41:12Well, it's got to cross your mind that it might end that way.
00:41:17Well, I'm sure that there will be space somewhere for the children and mates.
00:41:22The thing you have to understand about Sheree
00:41:25is that she had strong political views, strong sense of ambition.
00:41:32If not Tony, it could have been Sheree.
00:41:34It was Sheree who was, in a sense, the sort of Labour Party animal,
00:41:38the person, you know, who wanted to run as a candidate
00:41:42and to join the leadership of the Labour Party.
00:41:45And she took a very profound,
00:41:48and it must have been quite a difficult personal decision,
00:41:51in a sense, to step back and to be his support.
00:41:55There was about a six-month period, no more, when I was a candidate
00:41:59and Tony was still looking for a seat.
00:42:01And so he had to trail behind me.
00:42:04Probably didn't do him any harm, did it?
00:42:05Probably didn't do any harm, but I certainly at the time felt it didn't do me any good.
00:42:11The marriage was so strong.
00:42:15Not smooth, not easy.
00:42:18Lots of gyrations.
00:42:21Lots of, sort of, shouting in the background.
00:42:24But my word, it was the rock.
00:42:27That marriage was the rock on which Tony's political career was made.
00:42:51There was an idea that I would write one of those sort of campaign diaries,
00:42:55or the story of an election campaign.
00:42:58And Tony Blair was keen that I did it.
00:43:00And I really got an astonishing first-hand insight into that whole election.
00:43:07And really witnessed a politician at the top of their game.
00:43:13He loved campaigning.
00:43:20On the battle bus, he'd go and sit at the front next to the driver so that he could see
00:43:24cars coming towards him,
00:43:26or people down the street.
00:43:28He sought a connection.
00:43:30Hello Northampton!
00:43:36I think that he just grew in confidence as the campaign went on.
00:43:41And the crowds became much bigger, and the enthusiasm for him was much greater.
00:43:46And it was like watching a flower blossom in the sunlight.
00:43:52Can we give him a kiss again?
00:43:53Will you give him a kiss again?
00:43:55Oh, I'm coming back to Basildon.
00:43:56Definitely.
00:43:57Definitely.
00:43:58It was very interesting to me during the 97 election that he wore a lot of make-up.
00:44:06There were not one but two make-up people travelling with him.
00:44:11And he liked that.
00:44:15It was like he was putting on the war paint every day before he went out.
00:44:28I got the impression, talking to people who knew him like his old housemaster at school,
00:44:34that he was quite a difficult, rebellious, long-haired, tricky boy to have in the house.
00:44:43And this all changed when the house put on a production of Julius Caesar,
00:44:48and he played Mark Antony.
00:44:50And he said to me for the first...
00:44:52I saw him visibly swell when he went on stage for the first time,
00:44:56as if he had found his calling.
00:45:11It's a clue to Tony's character that he saw being a party leader as a 24-hour day performance.
00:45:19He always needed to perform.
00:45:21Please welcome the Leader of the Opposition, the Right Honourable Tony Blair.
00:45:33He was on television, really, that politicians meet their electorate.
00:45:39And he has this ability to separate his inner self from the public persona.
00:45:45Sitting on that couch last week were the Spice Girls.
00:45:49Right.
00:45:50Right.
00:45:51Mrs Thatcher, they thought, was the first Spice Girl.
00:45:54No, no.
00:45:54You were...
00:45:55They said that, didn't they, Tony?
00:45:58Well, I've actually...
00:45:59I did meet the Spice Girls.
00:46:00They have sort of bare midriffs, short skirts, sort of earrings and through various parts...
00:46:08Pins and things.
00:46:08Yeah, pins and things, and tattoos.
00:46:10I can't really see Margaret Thatcher like that.
00:46:14You did go on Chris Evans' show, apparently, and said that Bowie...
00:46:17This is David Bowie, his wife, Eamon, was your dream girl.
00:46:22Did you actually say that?
00:46:23I did.
00:46:24Well, he asked me the question, and I broke the first rule of politics and lapsed into total
00:46:28honesty.
00:46:28There's nothing wrong without politics.
00:46:31We won't get enough to do it.
00:46:34Tony Blair!
00:46:36Tony Blair!
00:46:38Tony Blair!
00:46:39Tony Blair!
00:46:42On 1st May 1997, after 18 years of Tory rule, Britain goes to the polls.
00:46:54My parents were very superstitious.
00:46:56We could not say, Dad's going to win the election, because it might not happen.
00:47:00And I was only nine, so I didn't know what an election meant.
00:47:03I didn't know what him being Prime Minister meant.
00:47:05And so I did not know.
00:47:06And we hadn't packed anything.
00:47:17It was exciting and a little bit scary.
00:47:21The press are not very child-friendly.
00:47:24This way!
00:47:25Everybody this way!
00:47:26All right!
00:47:26Can you all?
00:47:27Thank you!
00:47:29This way, please!
00:47:30There were just so many press there, and a hundred cameras in your face, shouting your
00:47:34name, wanting you to look at them and smile, smile, do this.
00:47:37And we were just like, what is going on?
00:47:39I remember it being very terrifying.
00:47:40And I was just holding my dad's hand, thinking, what are we doing?
00:47:44Why are all these people here?
00:47:45Mr. Blair, this way, please.
00:47:49Come on, with your waves to the middle.
00:47:50Nothing.
00:47:51This way, please.
00:47:52This way, Mr Blair.
00:48:02There it is, 10 o'clock, and we say, Tony Blair is to be Prime Minister and a landslide.
00:48:08Is likely.
00:48:20On election night, I arrived at his house.
00:48:22And the first thing I noticed, of course, was there were now men with machine guns standing
00:48:26around in the garden.
00:48:28You know, he was about to become Prime Minister, clearly.
00:48:30Go for it, Tony.
00:48:32Go for it, Tony.
00:48:32Go for it, Tony.
00:48:33Go for it, Tony.
00:48:34Anthony Charles Linton Blair, the Labour Party candidate, 33,000.
00:48:52At the count, I was a few miles from where I'd been brought up.
00:48:57My dad was there, my mum wasn't.
00:49:01My dad had really, all his ambitions in the end had failed because of his illness.
00:49:08But here was his son about to become the British Prime Minister.
00:49:12And he was so proud and happy, and I was happy for him.
00:49:18And, yeah, it was...
00:49:21And I also...
00:49:22I missed my mum.
00:49:33So off goes Tony Blair.
00:49:36The engines of his jet will soon be starting.
00:49:39The door will close.
00:49:41And he will be down amongst even more admirers.
00:49:45Got my notes, sir.
00:49:47He's got my notes.
00:49:49OK, Tom.
00:49:49Get used to this.
00:49:52We went on the plane.
00:49:56And...
00:49:57Everyone was very excited and Alistair was constantly saying, you know,
00:50:01we've just won this and we've just won that.
00:50:03And Tony was just very still and very quiet and sat up at the front.
00:50:10And I was just holding his hand.
00:50:14And, you know, he did say...
00:50:18What have we done?
00:50:19I think it was more about...
00:50:26The weight of it.
00:50:41There's Tony Blair smiling.
00:50:43Again, greeting, shaking hands with party workers.
00:50:46They all want to shake his hand.
00:50:47He'll take one or two of them.
00:50:54Everyone was sort of cheering and shouting.
00:50:56You know, people saying to me, well, it's all fantastic.
00:50:59And I was just sitting there thinking, yeah, well, we're now going to be running the country.
00:51:04So, you know, no more words.
00:51:07We're not going to do it anymore.
00:51:08What about fear?
00:51:10Yeah, some fear.
00:51:11Yeah, some fear, I think.
00:51:14Because are you going to be up to it?
00:51:15Can you do it?
00:51:16What's going to happen?
00:51:17Did you enjoy it a bit?
00:51:20Those first 24 hours?
00:51:24You know, if I'm really honest about it, I'm not sure I did enjoy it that much.
00:51:28Just because I was, I was just thinking, you know, here you are.
00:51:32You know, you're in your early 40s, you're Prime Minister.
00:51:35And rather than thinking, you're Prime Minister, wow.
00:51:38I was like, you're Prime Minister, so you better do a good job.
00:51:43Because now what happens to this country and its people depends on you.
00:52:17I remember being stunned at the amount of people there were.
00:52:21There were all these flags everywhere, everyone seemed really happy.
00:52:31Even as a 13-year-old and right in the middle of it, there was a genuine sense of excitement.
00:52:36It was kind of nice to think, wow, people really liked that.
00:52:40Of course then, as it developed and you'd read the papers and everything else,
00:52:44you'd realise that not everyone liked it.
00:52:58Blair comes to power with uncharted levels of popularity.
00:53:02He pushes through a blizzard of bold new policies that change the way Britain works.
00:53:08This is a government in a hurry.
00:53:10The Bank of England is to be made independent.
00:53:13Scotland and Wales are to have their own parliaments.
00:53:17For the first time, there'll be a minimum wage.
00:53:20And to improve education, class sizes will be reduced.
00:53:26One of the things I think he was drawn to, as it were, almost irresistibly,
00:53:32was his belief to solve problems which had defeated everybody else.
00:53:37He was drawn to making labour electable by inventing new labour and then delivering it.
00:53:42And I think he was drawn to Northern Ireland.
00:53:45It had defeated everyone else.
00:53:47He could do it.
00:53:58Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities have been deeply divided for decades
00:54:03and are caught in a seemingly never-ending cycle of sectarian violence.
00:54:13Tony came back from Chequers and he came in Monday morning, sort of, you know, all bouncy and what have
00:54:21you.
00:54:22And he said, I've worked out in Northern Ireland.
00:54:25I've worked it out.
00:54:26Oh, OK, you've worked it out.
00:54:27Have you done that?
00:54:32And he did become pretty obsessed with it.
00:54:39Blair sets the goal of getting a peace agreement within a year.
00:54:44The stakes were enormous on Northern Ireland and I was alarmed that he would be out of his depth.
00:54:51And I said to him, Prime Minister, I've got to say to you, I am worried.
00:54:55You're going to be moving in with people who have huge sensitive issues,
00:55:02a lot of history, a lot of anger.
00:55:05Are you going to be ready for it?
00:55:07And he said, look, Richard, I don't need to know about the history.
00:55:12I'm better off if I don't know the history.
00:55:14I'm going to focus on the people.
00:55:16You watch, it'll work.
00:55:19He takes the highly controversial step
00:55:21of inviting the Irish Republican leaders of Sinn Féin to Downing Street.
00:55:28Tony invested a huge amount of time in meeting Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness
00:55:31and Ian Paisley and other Northern Irish politicians.
00:55:35And we'd bring them into Downing Street.
00:55:38And particularly when we had the DUP in Paisley's party involved,
00:55:42they would not meet Sinn Féin.
00:55:43They would not be in the same building as Sinn Féin.
00:55:45But when I was with Paisley in the cabinet office,
00:55:48I noticed looking out of the window to my horror
00:55:50that Adams and McGuinness had escaped from Number 10 into the Rose Garden.
00:55:53And we're playing with Blair children with their skateboard.
00:55:57They go out for a break, right, through these very intense sessions.
00:56:00And they see me and my brother skateboarding in the garden.
00:56:03And we sort of said to them, hey, do you want to try?
00:56:05Because they were sort of watching us.
00:56:07And so you're in the farcical situation of kind of trying to teach Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness
00:56:12how to skateboard against the backdrop of something incredibly serious and solemn and historic.
00:56:18And I remember telling Dad afterwards, and he was just, thank God they didn't injure themselves.
00:56:28It's the 7th of April, 1998.
00:56:31Blair arrives in Belfast with most of the key players around the negotiating table.
00:56:36But the talks are on the brink of collapse.
00:56:39And there's a deadline looming just days away.
00:56:43Morning.
00:56:44We're here to do a job of work and we've got to get it done.
00:56:48And we've got complete determination to do it.
00:56:51We were in this awful building.
00:56:54And he could get incredibly frustrated.
00:56:56He was saying like, you know, if we could just sort this out without all the other people.
00:57:01We could do it right now, right?
00:57:03But we have to deal with all this fucking this and fucking that.
00:57:06He's not a table slammer.
00:57:08But I saw him at one point slamming the table.
00:57:11And he just went, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
00:57:15Tony Blow is one of the most successful and most skilful negotiators I ever came across.
00:57:21He can play with a whole range of emotions, but he's always in control.
00:57:25And I do remember one negotiation we had.
00:57:27He said to me, never lose your temper except on purpose.
00:57:30And it came home to me quite how he managed negotiations.
00:57:33The problem is now you're in to this day is not that you can't reach it.
00:57:37It's just making sure that you drive the thing forward as quickly as possible.
00:57:43Machiavelli talks about needing the skill of the fox, but also the courage of the lion.
00:57:48And Tony had both.
00:57:48He had the ability on issues of principle to be really brave, really firm.
00:57:53But he also had a very sinuous way to charm people into things.
00:58:00Roy Jenkins said that Tony Blair had a second class intellect, but a first class temperament.
00:58:05And actually, there's something in that that's really a compliment, which is that he had the most remarkable EQ.
00:58:10His ability to understand people, to relate to people, to empathise, was his superpower.
00:58:16Well, ladies and gentlemen, you will have heard that Senator Mitchell's announcement has been made that an agreement has been
00:58:22reached.
00:58:24Mrs Thatcher didn't believe Northern Ireland could be solved.
00:58:26John Major believed Northern Ireland could be solved, but he couldn't do it.
00:58:29Tony Blair believed both, that it could be done and he could do it.
00:58:32And he really drove it through.
00:58:34Today, we have just a sense of the prize that is before us.
00:58:39He believed it was kind of his destiny to fulfil this.
00:58:43Somewhere written in the stars was for him to achieve this great thing for the country.
00:58:47The work to win that prize goes on.
00:58:50We cannot, we must not, let it slip from our grasp.
00:58:56But Mo Molan said to me that Tony succeeded because he thought he was fucking Jesus.
00:59:11It's a great day.
00:59:13It's a great day.
00:59:13It's a great day.
00:59:14Less than two years into Blair's time as Prime Minister, a war is escalating on the edge of Europe.
00:59:21You're not looking bad for a man who doesn't sleep.
00:59:24Thank God.
00:59:26I like it.
00:59:26It's an hell the last few days.
00:59:28It's a great day.
00:59:29Right.
00:59:31Serbian forces led by Slobodan Milosevic have driven 800,000 people from their homes in Kosovo.
00:59:39Ethnic cleansing is taking place.
00:59:41Blair is under pressure to act.
00:59:46I went in to see Tony and I said, it looks like war in Kosovo because the diplomatic process has
00:59:52completely failed.
00:59:53And we've got this commitment to intervene.
00:59:57And I was surprised at how calmly he took it.
01:00:00Because I could see this was going to be the dominant issue over the next few months.
01:00:04When a Prime Minister sends his forces into military action, nothing else competes with it for attention.
01:00:13It was obvious to me that what was happening in Kosovo was effectively ethnic cleansing.
01:00:18You know, there was murder, there was rape, there was a displacement of a civilian population.
01:00:22And I felt this was happening right on the doorstep of Europe.
01:00:27We should act and we can act and therefore we're going to.
01:00:33On the 24th of March, 1999, Blair takes a leading role as NATO planes are scrambled to bomb targets in
01:00:43Serbia.
01:00:57You are fighting a just war and a just cause.
01:01:00And I believe we are fighting for the values of civilisation.
01:01:06Blair becomes convinced that the only way to beat Milosevic is to threaten boots on the ground.
01:01:13But other world leaders are set against it and Blair is isolated.
01:01:18This was the one situation I remember Tony saying, if this is the last thing I do as Prime Minister,
01:01:24if I'm hounded out as a result of this, if it somehow goes belly up, so be it, I'm going
01:01:30for it.
01:01:32Blair starts a campaign to persuade a reluctant US President Bill Clinton to back his plans.
01:01:42First of all, it was the only real policy disagreement I think we had of any magnitude the whole time
01:01:49we worked together.
01:01:50I argued that we would have fewer casualties and that we might be able to win with air power.
01:02:00I said, I think we are morally obliged to win and to win it by killing the fewest number of
01:02:06people.
01:02:11The New York Times splashed a headline saying that Tony Blair was trying to toughen up Clinton and make him
01:02:17agree to ground troops.
01:02:20And Clinton went absolutely ape. He called Tony from Air Force One.
01:02:25I remember being on the call and he was so angry. He really lost it. He really shouted and yelled,
01:02:30I know what you're doing. You're trying to make me look weak and you're trying to make yourself look strong.
01:02:35And Tony would say, no, no, no, honestly, that wasn't us. We didn't do that. It's not in our interest
01:02:38to do that.
01:02:39I believe there was a phone call between the two of you and it got a little bit heated.
01:02:44It did. I was mad because his guys were trying to make him look good in the New York Times
01:02:49at my expense when we should have been united in fighting this war.
01:02:54I was always totally honest with him. I didn't ever pull any punches.
01:03:01How did the Prime Minister bring the President down from that anger?
01:03:04The method was to stay calm, not to sort of panic as people sometimes do when you face anger like
01:03:08that.
01:03:09But to calmly say, no, no, it honestly wasn't us. We don't want to do that. It's not in our
01:03:11interest to do that.
01:03:12And gradually talked him down until they're able to end the call.
01:03:16He could always, as we say at home, he could always talk an owl out of a tree.
01:03:23Under pressure from Blair, Clinton softens his stance on ground troops.
01:03:29And in the face of a united front, Milosevic backs down.
01:03:33The logic of the campaign came through to Tony much quicker than it did to other leaders.
01:03:41And I don't think we would have got anything like the outcome had it not been for that personal commitment
01:03:46that he made.
01:03:50Blair's standing up to Milosevic helped end the conflict in Kosovo, saving thousands of lives.
01:03:58Like, I said, 1995 careful of how he can踊ります.
01:04:01As the ListeningPer The
01:04:01deny, bah-bu-bu-uan-bang ye, bah-bu-daw-ank ye
01:04:04Not it, bah-bi-gah-bi-gah-bi-gah-bi-gon-bam you
01:04:15stretchy meny boule-cken, bah-bi-gah-bi- officials
01:04:17And seinendogan.
01:04:18Whenever something in politics looks at its zenith, the termites at work on the bass.
01:04:26That is a sort of cyclical, almost natural rule of politics.
01:04:30And people that I've spoken to who know him very well,
01:04:33they all point to Kosovo.
01:04:35At that point, for the first time,
01:04:39maybe a slight parting from reality began to take place.
01:04:48The moment that he appeared rather like, you know,
01:04:52Christ walking through the Holy Land with people hailing him
01:04:57as if he had worked a miracle,
01:04:59a friend of mine, a friend of Tony's, said to me
01:05:02he thought he could walk on water.
01:05:04And in that triumph, the seeds of tragedy were so.
01:05:19This is not a battle for NATO.
01:05:22This is not a battle for territory.
01:05:25This is a battle for humanity.
01:05:28It is a just cause.
01:05:30It is a rightful cause.
01:05:32And we will make sure that these people here
01:05:35are returned to their homes.
01:05:37That is our commitment to them.
01:05:38practical help, practical commitment
01:05:41and above all else, a determination
01:05:44that all this suffering and all this misery
01:05:48and everything that has been created by the brutality of Milosevic
01:05:52shall not last, but shall be reversed, shall be defeated
01:05:56so these people can once again become symbols of hope, humanity and peace.
01:06:06He was at his best.
01:06:10He really felt deeply it had to be done.
01:06:14We had a moral responsibility to act.
01:06:18The international politics were difficult,
01:06:20but he showed genuine leadership in moving the dialogue.
01:06:28My concerns were the alacrity with which he wanted to take military action.
01:06:34His very quick decision.
01:06:36We'll go in.
01:06:37We're going to get involved.
01:06:37We're going to do this militarily.
01:06:40It had been, in those terms, successful.
01:06:42But I think he then realised that he had the power to do this.
01:06:47And we then descended, in my view, into the horrors of the post-2001 situation.
01:06:58Well, one of the things you learn in politics is they could be chanting your name one day in praise
01:07:02and they could be chanting it the next day in condemnation.
01:07:06You're going to be strong enough both to withstand the praise and the condemnation.
01:07:10Once you come to the view that what you should do is what you think is right,
01:07:14then you've got to stand by that.
01:07:16Some people will hate it. Some people will love it.
01:07:19And that you shouldn't, it shouldn't propel you one way or the other.
01:07:59You'll never forget it.
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