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Tony Blair was one of Britain's most successful and controversial leaders. With unprecedented access, including to Blair and his family, this series charts his rise to power. And what happened next.
Blair’s early years and traumas and his rise to the top - from charming Murdoch, rock stars and the voters, to peace in Northern Ireland. With contributions from Bill Clinton and Alastair Campbell.
Blair’s early years and traumas and his rise to the top - from charming Murdoch, rock stars and the voters, to peace in Northern Ireland. With contributions from Bill Clinton and Alastair Campbell.
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00:00:04Some say you were his Lady Macbeth.
00:00:07If anyone thinks Tony's my puppet,
00:00:09they just don't understand the nature of the man.
00:00:15Right.
00:00:17He could always, as we say at home,
00:00:19he could always talk an owl out of a tree.
00:00:25When you think of Tony Blair,
00:00:27what words spring to mind?
00:00:30I think he's a man in denial, actually.
00:00:35Tony Blair, a Prime Minister who never lost a general election.
00:00:40He is, without doubt, both one of the most successful
00:00:44and 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.
00:00:56His whole story, the life story of Tony Blair,
00:01:00is one of exploration of the world to see how far he can get.
00:01:04And we're common in this film.
00:01:22And why nobody is doing this film with people easily.
00:01:24to be aледonğı.
00:01:25And every text message.uestos
00:01:26are especially hardoral.ze
00:01:33then the rest of the time, we
00:02:02Transcription by CastingWords
00:02:31Transcription by CastingWords
00:02:34It's not, but as I said to you when you started doing this programme,
00:02:37I don't even know why anyone would be interested in doing a programme on me,
00:02:40but since you are, that's fine, and, you know, let's see.
00:02:50These are Tony Blair's parents, Hazel and Leo Blair.
00:03:00Leo's story is remarkable.
00:03:04He was born the son of travelling performers
00:03:07and put into the foster care of a Mr and Mrs Blair in a poor part of Glasgow.
00:03:16Tony's father joined the army and then the Conservative Party.
00:03:20He had dreams of becoming Prime Minister.
00:03:26My dad was a remarkable man.
00:03:29He was chairman of the local Conservative Party.
00:03:31He was a very successful barrister, great speaker.
00:03:35By the way, I think he could have been a Prime Minister, but...
00:03:45Tony's father sent his son to this boarding school
00:03:50at the age of 13.
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.
00:04:34He 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,
00:05:15but 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
00:05:29and the days that followed so vividly that I get...
00:05:32Of course, it makes an impact in your life
00:05:35and 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
00:05:54might have affected him?
00:05:57No, not really. No, no, we never really discussed it.
00:06:00No, 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.
00:06:16He was strong.
00:06:18It 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 advisors.
00:07:03So he arrived, fresh-faced, fun.
00:07:06He was good-looking, he was fun to be with, articulate.
00:07:13And he looked like every other guy that came to Oxford in 1972,
00:07:17which was basically, he was long hair and he had a big fur coat.
00:07:21And he was kind of, you know, he was good.
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.
00:07:39Yes, so Ewan had been my dearest friend at school, there was a group of us and he was
00:07:51a great guy, he was a wonderful, wonderful young man and unfortunately he got into drugs
00:08:02I think and he became sort of mentally unstable and then took his own life and it had a big
00:08:08impact on me because he, first of all because obviously he was a very, very dear friend and
00:08:14secondly because I, you know, I just felt what a waste it was because he had such talent,
00:08:24he was such a clever young man with such a strong personality, he would have done great
00:08:32things and when my first son was born, you know, I named him after him.
00:08:44Ewan's suicide had a big impact on Tony and he came back, it was at the end of the summer
00:08:50term and I remember he came back the following term with his hair cut and he wasn't wearing
00:08:56their fur coat, he 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 with putting the
00:09:23coins in the box and therefore you weren't every day in contact with your family as you
00:09:28are today.
00:09:29My mother had been ill and I knew she had cancer and the family didn't want to tell me because
00:09:34I was doing my final exams at Oxford, they 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, he said
00:09:48to
00:09:48me, 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 she 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 parent
00:10:12dies when you're very young is you just realize, well, if you've got something to do with your
00:10:16life, you better get on and do it because who knows what happens.
00:10:47It's 1982.
00:10:52Mrs. Thatcher is in power and 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.
00:11:43Rather 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.
00:12:06Anthony Charles Linton, 3,886.
00:12:15As expected, Blair loses.
00:12:28When I first met Tony, we were co-pubals 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.
00:12:52Both of us in different ways had a religious faith.
00:12:57Was he romantic in his courtship?
00:13:00No, 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.
00:13:15Tony 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 have always been interested in politics.
00:13:47I was interested in politics when I was 14 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?
00:14:02Badly.
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,
00:14:26Sedgefield 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.
00:14:44I 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, but 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.
00:15:43You know, there's a guy from London coming up.
00:15:46He wants to be our next MP.
00:15:48Yeah, our champion, but we'll be watching the football.
00:15:51Of course, there's a long, long way to go yet,
00:15:54but it is a night where there will be a positive result
00:15:57because 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 grilling 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
00:16:35and was a barrister.
00:16:39But we knew that night.
00:16:41I said to the lads, I said, you know,
00:16:43you 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.
00:16:52And Paul agreed, they all agreed.
00:16:56Well, I saw he was different.
00:16:58You know, I was young.
00:16:59I wanted someone younger than your average Labour MP.
00:17:02I wanted someone with a bit of go about them.
00:17:04And there he was sitting on the set A.
00:17:06So why not give the young lad a go?
00:17:09Wow.
00:17:11Tony jumped up.
00:17:12And, you know, I had a couple more drinks.
00:17:21Blair 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,
00:18:01more modern, more suited to the 1980s.
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
00:18:27rather than manufacturing industries.
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.
00:18:41Who 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.
00:18:59Do 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.
00:19:22They share a room at the House of Commons.
00:19:25Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, didn't they do well?
00:19:28He did even better.
00:19:29Got 50,000 votes more, didn't you, than he got.
00:19:32But both of you did extremely well indeed.
00:19:34They become a pair with contrasting personalities.
00:19:37I want to see a wider membership.
00:19:40I 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...
00:19:49He 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.
00:19:58Well, a fairly democratic way.
00:20:00I mean very democratic.
00:20:01I'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 by bouncing ideas off
00:20:28him, by discussing ideas.
00:20:30Yes, helping him develop.
00:20:32But 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.
00:20:56By 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 into a completely different mode of
00:21:43thinking.
00:21:44I said, well anyway, looks like you'll be in government in a couple of months, because 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, and Tony now hopes that Gordon will put his hat into the ring to be
00:22:01the new leader.
00:22:02But Gordon throws his support behind his fellow Scot, John Smith.
00:22:07I 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.
00:22:51And it's here that Blair wakes suddenly with 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 and I thought,
00:23:17you'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.
00:23:27And 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, if 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, you know,
00:24:24a huge problem for you 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.
00:24:33And therefore, there's no point in ending up because I knew it would be a difficult conversation
00:24:38because 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.
00:25:01The leader of the Labour Party, John Smith, died this morning in hospital
00:25:04after suffering a massive heart attack at his London home.
00:25:18It was a very extraordinary situation at the funeral because you got the absolute grief of his family
00:25:28and then the 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?
00:25:37Well, let's go.
00:25:39Let's go.
00:25:40Let's go.
00:25:52PIANO PLAYS
00:26:15It was an incredibly intense day.
00:26:20Everybody was thinking about the succession.
00:26:33Everybody's looking around thinking, is he going to run for it?
00:26:37Who's going to support him? Is 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 that 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.
00:27:06I said, Tim, you've got to go for it.
00:27:09It's got to be you.
00:27:15When 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?
00:27:27He just looked at me and said, Peter, I'm going to do this.
00:27:32I said, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, but we'll consider how, you know...
00:27:35No, you said, I'm going to do this.
00:27:39It really was as if his time had come.
00:27:44He had a sense of destiny.
00:27:52Blair and Brown engage in a series of fraught negotiations
00:27:57over which one of them will run for leader.
00:28:02They were such close, good, intimate friends.
00:28:05It was like a married couple deciding whose career should come first.
00:28:11I 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...
00:28:20OK. Is that OK?
00:28:22Can I just put one question to you about the leadership?
00:28:24Not at all. We're talking about the European elections today.
00:28:26OK.
00:28:27What are you planning to do today, sir?
00:28:28Thanks.
00:28:31Tony was feeling absolutely 100% determined.
00:28:34I'm going to persuade him.
00:28:38I'm going to persuade him. I'm going to persuade him.
00:28:44As they try to thrash out a deal,
00:28:46they have at least 10 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 in...
00:29:16The granola, or what it was called.
00:29:18Granita?
00:29:18Yes, the granita.
00:29:20That'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.
00:29:28But 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
00:30:02on the time he would serve as leader.
00:30:08But there was never, to my mind, in fact,
00:30:11I 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
00:30:25think they hear what they want to hear.
00:30:28So I think that Gordon may well have spoken
00:30:33of a time limit,
00:30:35and Tony may not have strongly disabused him of that.
00:30:39Did any part of you feel a little bit sorry for Gordon?
00:30:43No.
00:30:48It's that 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, you know,
00:31:07he's messianic and all of that.
00:31:08No, I'm not like that.
00:31:10If I can avoid having a big fight on Rao,
00:31:13I'll happily avoid it.
00:31:14But I always know there comes a point
00:31:17when, you know,
00:31:18if it's something that really, really matters,
00:31:19you're going to have to, you know,
00:31:22you've got to confront it.
00:31:23If I thought he was going to do the things
00:31:26I thought were necessary for the Labour Party,
00:31:27I really would have been happy to have been number two.
00:31:32But 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.
00:31:45And, you know, to be honest,
00:31:46you never fully resolve it.
00:31:47So it had to be done.
00:31:59This morning, I'm announcing my candidature
00:32:02for the position of leader of the Labour Party.
00:32:16Well, 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,
00:32:35we want the other strength.
00:32:37His strength was certainly the personal charm
00:32:39and the communications.
00:32:41I 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
00:32:57with 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
00:33:11the effect of the job you're about to take on,
00:33:14assuming you get it,
00:33:15upon yourself and your family?
00:33:17I've reflected upon it a great deal.
00:33:20And you've decided that
00:33:21the 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,
00:34:00indeed expect it.
00:34:06Blair wins,
00:34:08and now he's leader of the Labour Party.
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,
00:34:20you know, line of least resistance,
00:34:23pretty front guy,
00:34:24could not be further from the truth.
00:34:28He assembles a formidable team
00:34:31of political operators and spin doctors.
00:34:34Well, this curious combination
00:34:36of Tony being Mr. Good Guy,
00:34:39and then around him,
00:34:41you have these absolutely ruthless bastards.
00:34:44Richard, you want anything tomorrow,
00:34:46any other day?
00:34:47Come on.
00:34:47Come on.
00:34:49I was being quite robust,
00:34:53and I remember Tony looking,
00:34:56ooh.
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.
00:35:19And 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.
00:35:32New 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.
00:35:49APPLAUSE
00:36:14It's July 1995,
00:36:17and Blair's just flown 10,000 miles
00:36:20to a tropical island in Australia
00:36:22to 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 take a long spoon with you.
00:36:41That was the sort of general gist from our colleagues.
00:36:44We're having a project from ABC television.
00:36:47How are you going?
00:36:47You've come halfway around the world
00:36:49to talk to Rupert Murdoch and his men.
00:36:51Why is that?
00:36:52You're impersonating Dame Adder, aren't you?
00:36:55Do you expect Mr Rupert Murdoch's papers
00:36:57to 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.
00:37:10OK, thank you.
00:37:10Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
00:37:13OK, thanks.
00:37:14Thank you. Nice to meet you.
00:37:15Bye-bye.
00:37:22Quite a lot of people, Jeremy Corbyn, in the Labour Party,
00:37:24I mean, people like Roy Hattersley would say,
00:37:26this 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.
00:37:51Blair had this ability to separate himself from the political, philosophical debate around an issue,
00:38:01and go into it in a totally transactional way.
00:38:10Tony Blair said to me,
00:38:12how we treat Rupert Murdoch in power
00:38:16will depend on how he treats Labour in the run-up to the election.
00:38:21It's pretty simple.
00:38:22You know, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
00:38:26That's what it came down to.
00:38:31Having charmed the media mogul,
00:38:33Blair seems equally at ease getting gushing endorsements from rock stars.
00:38:40There are seven people in this room tonight
00:38:43who are giving a little bit of hope to young people in this country.
00:38:47That is me,
00:38:49our kid,
00:38:50Bonehead,
00:38:51Quigsey,
00:38:52Alan White,
00:38:53Alan McGee,
00:38:54and Tony Blair.
00:38:55And if you'd all got anything about you,
00:38:56you'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,
00:39:06which is that you seem to me to be like a real person.
00:39:10But if it's not an overly pretentious question,
00:39:12I 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.
00:39:23What 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,
00:39:35but 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,
00:39:50then I 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,
00:40:06whether it was Cherie 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,
00:40:19how 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,
00:40:37they did a brilliant imposture
00:40:39of being normal human beings.
00:40:41Now, actually, anybody who was on his way
00:40:43to becoming Prime Minister
00:40:44is not a normal human being,
00:40:45but they played the game brilliantly.
00:40:47You have obviously also had to think through
00:40:49the possibility of being in No. 10 Downing Street,
00:40:51both of you.
00:40:53You take it stage by stage, actually.
00:40:55I'm a great believer in the old
00:40:57Mrs. Beaton recipe for rabbit stew,
00:41:00first catch your rabbit.
00:41:03Cherie, do you have daunting feelings about that?
00:41:06I've never even been near Downing Street,
00:41:10so 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
00:41:14that it might end that way.
00:41:17Well, I'm sure that there will be space somewhere
00:41:19for the children and mates.
00:41:22The thing you have to understand about Cherie
00:41:25is that she had strong political views,
00:41:28strong sense of ambition.
00:41:32If not Tony, it could have been Cherie.
00:41:34It was Cherie who was, in a sense,
00:41:37the sort of Labour Party animal,
00:41:38the person, you know,
00:41:40who 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
00:41:49personal decision,
00:41:51in a sense, to step back
00:41:53and to be his support.
00:41:55There was about a six-month period,
00:41:57no more,
00:41:57when I was a candidate
00:41:59and Tony was still looking for a seat.
00:42:00And so he had to trail behind me.
00:42:04Probably didn't do him any harm, did it?
00:42:06Probably didn't do any harm,
00:42:07but I certainly at the time felt
00:42:08it 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
00:42:29on which Tony's political career was made.
00:42:51There was an idea that I would write
00:42:53one of those sort of campaign diaries
00:42:55or the story of an election campaign,
00:42:57and Tony Blair was keen that I did it.
00:43:00And I really got an astonishing
00:43:01first-hand insight
00:43:03into that whole election.
00:43:07And really witnessed
00:43:08a 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
00:43:22next to the driver
00:43:23so that he could see cars 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
00:43:38as the campaign went on.
00:43:41And the crowds became much bigger
00:43:43and the enthusiasm for him was much greater.
00:43:46And it was like watching a flower blossom
00:43:50in the sunlight.
00:43:52Can we give him a kiss again?
00:43:53Can we give him a kiss again?
00:43:55Oh, I'm coming back to Basildon.
00:43:56Definitely, definitely, definitely.
00:43:58It was very interesting to me
00:44:00during the 97 election
00:44:02that he wore a lot of make-up.
00:44:06There were not one but two make-up people
00:44:09travelling with him.
00:44:11And he liked that.
00:44:15It was like he was putting on the war paint
00:44:18every day before he went out.
00:44:28I got the impression, talking to people who knew him,
00:44:31like his old housemaster at school,
00:44:35that he was quite a difficult, rebellious, long-haired,
00:44:40tricky boy to have in the house.
00:44:43And that this all changed
00:44:45when the house put on a production of Julius Caesar
00:44:48and he played Mark Antony.
00:44:50And he said to me,
00:44:51I saw him visibly swell
00:44:54when 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
00:45:14that he saw being a party leader
00:45:16as a 24-hour-a-day performance.
00:45:19He always needed to perform.
00:45:21Please welcome the leader of the opposition,
00:45:24the Right Honourable Tony Blair.
00:45:33It was on television, really,
00:45:35that politicians meet their electorate.
00:45:39And he has this ability
00:45:40to separate his inner self
00:45:43from the public persona.
00:45:45Sitting on that couch last week
00:45:47were the Spice Girls.
00:45:50Right, right.
00:45:51Mrs Thatcher, they thought,
00:45:53was the first Spice Girl.
00:45:54No, you were...
00:45:55You did, you said that, didn't they, Tony?
00:45:57Well, I've actually...
00:45:59I did meet the Spice Girls.
00:46:00They have sort of bare midriffs,
00:46:02short skirts,
00:46:05sort of earrings and...
00:46:07through various parts of the air,
00:46:08pins and things,
00:46:09and tattoos.
00:46:10I can't really see Margaret Thatcher like that.
00:46:14You did go on Chris Evans' show,
00:46:15apparently,
00:46:16and said that Bowery...
00:46:17This is David Bowery.
00:46:18His wife, Eamon,
00:46:19was your dream girl.
00:46:22Did you actually say that?
00:46:23I did.
00:46:24Well, he asked me the question,
00:46:25and I broke the first rule of politics
00:46:27and lapsed into total honesty.
00:46:28There's nothing wrong with that in politics.
00:46:30We won't get enough, do we?
00:46:34Tony Blair!
00:46:35Tony Blair!
00:46:37Tony Blair!
00:46:41Tony Blair!
00:46:42On the 1st of May, 1997,
00:46:45after 18 years of Tory rule,
00:46:48Britain goes to the polls.
00:46:54My parents were very superstitious.
00:46:56We could not say,
00:46:58Dad's going to win the election,
00:46:59because it might not happen.
00:47:00And I was only nine,
00:47:01so I didn't know what an election meant.
00:47:03I didn't know what him being Prime Minister meant,
00:47:04and so I did not know,
00:47:06and we hadn't packed anything.
00:47:08Come on, come on, come on.
00:47:10Come on, come on.
00:47:12Mr. Blair, Mr. Blair,
00:47:13Mr. Blair, Mr. Blair,
00:47:14everybody look this way, please.
00:47:15Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:47:16Tony, this way, please.
00:47:18It was exciting and a little bit scary.
00:47:21Press are not very child-friendly.
00:47:24It's this way.
00:47:25Everybody this way, all right.
00:47:26Down.
00:47:27Can you hold it off?
00:47:29Oh, this way, please.
00:47:30There were just so many press there,
00:47:32and a hundred cameras in your face,
00:47:33shouting your name,
00:47:34wanting me to look at them,
00:47:35and smile, smile, do this,
00:47:37and we're 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,
00:47:42thinking, what are we doing?
00:47:44Why are all these people here?
00:47:45To the middle of the back.
00:47:48Mr. Blair, this way, please.
00:47:49Come on, can you wave to the middle?
00:47:50Nothing.
00:47:51This way, please.
00:47:52This way, Mr. Blair.
00:47:53This way.
00:47:54This way.
00:47:54This way.
00:48:02There it is, 10 o'clock,
00:48:03and we say,
00:48:04Tony Blair is to be Prime Minister,
00:48:06and a landslide is likely.
00:48:12CHEERING
00:48:20On election night,
00:48:21I arrived at his house,
00:48:22and the first thing I noticed, of course,
00:48:24was there were now men with machine guns
00:48:26standing around in the garden.
00:48:28You know, he was about to become Prime Minister, clearly.
00:48:33Anthony Charles Linton Blair,
00:48:37the Labour Party candidate,
00:48:3933,000.
00:48:41APPLAUSE
00:48:52At the count,
00:48:53I was a few miles from where I'd been brought up.
00:48:57My dad was there.
00:48:59My mum wasn't.
00:49:01My dad had really...
00:49:03All his ambitions, in the end,
00:49:05had failed because of his illness,
00:49:08but here was his son
00:49:09about to become the British Prime Minister,
00:49:12and he was so proud and happy,
00:49:15and 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, get used to this.
00:49:52We went on the plane
00:49:56and everyone was very excited
00:49:58and Alistair was constantly saying,
00:50:00you know,
00:50:01we've just won this
00:50:02and we've just won that.
00:50:03And Tony was just very still
00:50:05and very quiet
00:50:07and 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?
00:50:19And I think it was more about...
00:50:27the 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...
00:50:53Everyone was sort of cheering and shouting.
00:50:56You know, people were saying to me,
00:50:58well, it's all fantastic.
00:50:59And I was just sitting there thinking,
00:51:01yeah, well, we're now going to be running the country,
00:51:04so, you know, no more words.
00:51:07I'm 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.
00:51:23You know, if I'm really honest about it,
00:51:26I'm not sure I did enjoy it that much,
00:51:28just because I was...
00:51:30I was just thinking, you know,
00:51:31here you are.
00:51:32You know, you're in your early 40s.
00:51:33You're prime minister.
00:51:35And rather than thinking,
00:51:36you're prime minister, wow.
00:51:37I was like, you're prime minister,
00:51:39so you better do a good job,
00:51:45because now what happens to this country
00:51:47and it's people depends on you.
00:52:15I remember being stunned
00:52:19at the amount of people there were.
00:52:21There were all these flags everywhere.
00:52:23Everyone seemed really happy.
00:52:31Even as a 13-year-old
00:52:33and right in the middle of it,
00:52:34there was a genuine sense of excitement.
00:52:36It was kind of nice to think,
00:52:38wow, people really like Dad.
00:52:40Of course, then,
00:52:41as it developed
00:52:42and you'd read the papers
00:52:43and everything else,
00:52:44you'd realise that not everyone liked it.
00:52:58Blair comes to power
00:53:00with uncharted levels of popularity.
00:53:02He pushes through
00:53:03a blizzard of bold new policies
00:53:06that change the way Britain works.
00:53:08This is a government in a hurry.
00:53:10The Bank of England
00:53:11is to be made independent.
00:53:13Scotland and Wales
00:53:15are to have their own parliaments.
00:53:16For the first time,
00:53:18there'll be a minimum wage.
00:53:22And to improve education,
00:53:24class sizes will be reduced.
00:53:26One of the things
00:53:27I think he was drawn to,
00:53:29as it were,
00:53:30almost irresistibly,
00:53:32was his belief
00:53:33to solve problems
00:53:34which had defeated everybody else.
00:53:37He was drawn
00:53:38to making labour electable
00:53:40by inventing new labour
00:53:41and then delivering it.
00:53:42And I think he was drawn
00:53:44to Northern Ireland.
00:53:45It had defeated everyone else.
00:53:47He could do it.
00:53:58Northern Ireland's Catholic
00:53:59and Protestant communities
00:54:01have been deeply divided
00:54:02for decades
00:54:03and are caught
00:54:05in a seemingly never-ending cycle
00:54:07of sectarian violence.
00:54:13Tony came back
00:54:14from Chequers
00:54:16and he came in
00:54:17Monday morning,
00:54:19sort of, you know,
00:54:20all bouncy and what have you.
00:54:22And he said,
00:54:23I've worked out
00:54:23in Northern Ireland.
00:54:25I've worked it out.
00:54:26Oh, OK.
00:54:27You've worked it out.
00:54:27Have you done that?
00:54:30And
00:54:32he did become
00:54:34pretty obsessed with it.
00:54:39Blair sets the goal
00:54:40of getting a peace agreement
00:54:41within a year.
00:54:44The stakes were enormous
00:54:46on Northern Ireland
00:54:47and I was alarmed
00:54:49that he would be
00:54:49out of his depth.
00:54:51And I said to him,
00:54:52Prime Minister,
00:54:53I've got to say to you,
00:54:55I am worried.
00:54:56You're going to be moving in
00:54:57with people
00:54:58who have huge,
00:55:00sensitive issues,
00:55:02a lot of history,
00:55:03a lot of anger.
00:55:04Are you going
00:55:05to be ready for it?
00:55:07And he said,
00:55:08look, Richard,
00:55:09I don't need to know
00:55:10about the history.
00:55:12I'm better off
00:55:12if I don't know the history.
00:55:14I'm going to focus
00:55:14on the people.
00:55:15You watch.
00:55:16It'll work.
00:55:19He takes the highly
00:55:20controversial step
00:55:21of inviting
00:55:22the Irish Republican
00:55:23leaders of Sinn Féin
00:55:25to Downing Street.
00:55:28Tony invested
00:55:28a huge amount of time
00:55:29in meeting Gerry Adams
00:55:31and Martin McGuinness
00:55:31and Ian Paisley
00:55:33and other Northern Irish
00:55:33politicians.
00:55:35And we bring them
00:55:36into Downing Street
00:55:37and particularly
00:55:39when we had the DUP
00:55:40and Paisley's party
00:55:41involved,
00:55:42they would not meet
00:55:42Sinn Féin.
00:55:43They would not be
00:55:43in the same building
00:55:44as Sinn Féin.
00:55:45But when I was with Paisley
00:55:47in the Cabinet Office,
00:55:48I noticed,
00:55:48looking out of the window,
00:55:49to my horror,
00:55:50that Adams and McGuinness
00:55:51had escaped from Number 10
00:55:52into the Rose Garden
00:55:53and were playing
00:55:54with Blair children
00:55:55with their skateboard.
00:55:56They go out for a break,
00:55:58right,
00:55:58through these very
00:55:59intense sessions
00:55:59and they see me
00:56:00and my brother
00:56:01skateboarding in the garden
00:56:03and we sort of said
00:56:04to them,
00:56:04hey,
00:56:04do you want to try?
00:56:05Because they were
00:56:06sort of watching us
00:56:07and so you're
00:56:08in the farcical situation
00:56:09of kind of trying
00:56:09to teach Gerry Adams
00:56:11and Martin McGuinness
00:56:12how to skateboard
00:56:13against the backdrop
00:56:14of something incredibly
00:56:15serious and solemn
00:56:16and historic.
00:56:18and I remember
00:56:19telling Dad afterwards
00:56:20and he was just,
00:56:22thank God
00:56:23they didn't injure themselves.
00:56:28It's the 7th of April,
00:56:301998.
00:56:31Blair arrives in Belfast
00:56:33with most of the key players
00:56:34around the negotiating table
00:56:36but the talks
00:56:38are on the brink of collapse
00:56:39and there's a deadline looming
00:56:41just days away.
00:56:43Morning.
00:56:44We're here to do
00:56:45a job of work
00:56:46and we've got to get it done
00:56:47and we've got
00:56:49complete determination
00:56:50to do it.
00:56:51We were in this awful building
00:56:54and he could get
00:56:55incredibly frustrated.
00:56:56He was saying like,
00:56:57you know,
00:56:57if we could just
00:56:59sort this out
00:57:00without all the other people,
00:57:01we could do it right now,
00:57:02right?
00:57:03But we're having to deal
00:57:03with all this
00:57:04fucking this
00:57:05and fucking that.
00:57:06He's not a table slammer
00:57:07but I saw him at one point
00:57:10slamming the table
00:57:11and he just went
00:57:13like that.
00:57:15Tony Blair was one
00:57:15of the most successful
00:57:17and most skilful
00:57:18negotiators I ever came across.
00:57:21He can play with
00:57:21a whole range of emotions
00:57:23but he's always in control.
00:57:25And I do remember
00:57:25one negotiation we had
00:57:27and he said to me,
00:57:27never lose your temper
00:57:29except on purpose.
00:57:30And it came home to me
00:57:31quite how he managed negotiations.
00:57:32The problem is now
00:57:33you're into this day
00:57:34is not that you can't reach it.
00:57:38It's just making sure
00:57:39that you drive the thing forward
00:57:41as quickly as possible.
00:57:43Machiavelli talks about
00:57:44needing the skill of the fox
00:57:46but also the courage of the lion.
00:57:48And Tony had both.
00:57:48He had the ability
00:57:50on issues of principle
00:57:51to be really brave,
00:57:52really firm
00:57:53but he also had
00:57:54a very sinuous way
00:57:56to charm people into things.
00:58:00Roy Jenkins said
00:58:01that Tony Blair
00:58:02had a second-class intellect
00:58:03but a first-class temperament.
00:58:05And actually,
00:58:06there's something in that
00:58:07that's really a compliment
00:58:07which is that he had
00:58:08the most remarkable EQ.
00:58:10His ability to understand people,
00:58:12to relate to people,
00:58:13to empathise
00:58:13was his superpower.
00:58:16Well, ladies and gentlemen,
00:58:17you will have heard
00:58:18that Senator Mitchell's
00:58:20announcement has been made
00:58:21that an agreement
00:58:22has been reached.
00:58:24Mrs Thatcher didn't believe
00:58:25Northern Ireland could be solved.
00:58:26John Major believed
00:58:27Northern Ireland could be solved
00:58:28but he couldn't do it.
00:58:29Tony Blair believed both,
00:58:31that it could be done
00:58:31and he could do it
00:58:32and he really drove it through.
00:58:34Today, we have just a sense
00:58:36of the prize
00:58:37that is before us.
00:58:39He believed it was
00:58:39kind of his destiny
00:58:40to fulfil this.
00:58:43Somewhere written in the stars
00:58:44was for him to achieve
00:58:45this great thing
00:58:46for the country.
00:58:47The work to win that prize
00:58:49goes on.
00:58:50We cannot,
00:58:51we must not,
00:58:52let it slip
00:58:53from our grasp.
00:58:56But Mo Molan
00:58:57said to me
00:58:57that Tony succeeded
00:58:59because he thought
00:59:00he was fucking Jesus.
00:59:13Less than two years
00:59:14into Blair's time
00:59:15as Prime Minister,
00:59:17a war is escalating
00:59:19on the edge of Europe.
00:59:31Serbian forces led by Slobodan Milosevic
00:59:34have driven 800,000 people
00:59:36from their homes in Kosovo.
00:59:39Ethnic cleansing
00:59:40is taking place.
00:59:41Blair is under pressure
00:59:43to act.
00:59:46I went in to see Tony
00:59:47and I said,
00:59:48it looks like war in Kosovo
00:59:50because the diplomatic process
00:59:52has completely failed
00:59:53and we've got this commitment
00:59:55to intervene.
00:59:57And I was surprised
00:59:58at how calmly he took it
01:00:00because I could see
01:00:01this was going to be
01:00:02the dominant issue
01:00:03over the next few months.
01:00:04When a Prime Minister
01:00:05sends his forces
01:00:06into military action,
01:00:07nothing else competes
01:00:08with it for attention.
01:00:13It was obvious to me
01:00:14that what was happening
01:00:15in Kosovo
01:00:16was effectively
01:00:17ethnic cleansing.
01:00:18You know,
01:00:18there was murder,
01:00:19there was rape,
01:00:20there was a displacement
01:00:21of a civilian population
01:00:22and I felt this was
01:00:23happening right
01:00:24on the doorstep of Europe.
01:00:27We should act
01:00:29and we can act
01:00:30and therefore
01:00:30we're going to.
01:00:34On the 24th of March,
01:00:361999,
01:00:36Blair takes a leading role
01:00:39as NATO planes
01:00:40are scrambled
01:00:41to bomb targets
01:00:43in Serbia.
01:00:57You are fighting
01:00:58a just war
01:00:58and a just cause
01:00:59and I believe
01:01:01we are fighting
01:01:02for the values
01:01:02of civilisation.
01:01:06Blair,
01:01:06becomes convinced
01:01:07that the only way
01:01:08to beat Milosevic
01:01:09is to threaten
01:01:10boots on the ground
01:01:13but other world leaders
01:01:15are set against it
01:01:16and Blair is isolated.
01:01:18This was the one situation
01:01:21I remember Tony saying,
01:01:22if this is the last thing
01:01:23I do as Prime Minister,
01:01:24if I'm hounded out
01:01:25as a result of this,
01:01:27if it somehow
01:01:27goes belly up,
01:01:29so be it,
01:01:29I'm going for it.
01:01:32Blair starts a campaign
01:01:33to persuade a reluctant
01:01:35U.S. President
01:01:36Bill Clinton
01:01:36to back his plans.
01:01:42First of all,
01:01:42it was the only real
01:01:45policy disagreement
01:01:46I think we had
01:01:47of any magnitude
01:01:48the whole time
01:01:49we worked together.
01:01:50I argued that
01:01:51we would have
01:01:52fewer casualties
01:01:55and that
01:01:58we might be able
01:01:59to win
01:01:59with their power.
01:02:00I said,
01:02:01I think we are morally
01:02:02obliged to win
01:02:03and to win it
01:02:04by killing
01:02:04the fewest
01:02:06number of people.
01:02:11The New York Times
01:02:12splashed with a headline
01:02:13saying that Tony Blair
01:02:14was trying to
01:02:15toughen up Clinton
01:02:16and make him
01:02:17agree to ground troops
01:02:20and Clinton
01:02:21went absolutely ape.
01:02:22He called Tony
01:02:23from Air Force One
01:02:25and I remember
01:02:25being on the call
01:02:26and he was so angry.
01:02:28He really lost it.
01:02:29He really shouted
01:02:30and yelled,
01:02:30I know what you're doing.
01:02:32You're trying to make
01:02:32me look weak
01:02:33and you're trying
01:02:33to make yourself
01:02:34look strong
01:02:34and Tony said,
01:02:35no, no, no,
01:02:35honestly,
01:02:36it wasn't us.
01:02:37We didn't do that.
01:02:37It's not in our interest
01:02:38to do that.
01:02:39I believe
01:02:41there was a phone call
01:02:42between the two of you
01:02:43and it got a little bit heated.
01:02:44It did.
01:02:45I was mad
01:02:46because his guys
01:02:47were trying to make him
01:02:47look good
01:02:48in the New York Times
01:02:49at my expense
01:02:50when we should have been
01:02:52united in fighting this war.
01:02:54I was always totally honest
01:02:56with him.
01:02:57I didn't ever pull any punches.
01:03:01How did the Prime Minister
01:03:02bring the President down
01:03:03from that anger?
01:03:04The method was to stay calm,
01:03:05not to sort of panic
01:03:06as people sometimes do
01:03:07when you face anger like that,
01:03:08but to calmly say,
01:03:09no, no,
01:03:10it honestly wasn't us.
01:03:10We don't want to do that.
01:03:11It's not in our interest
01:03:12to do that
01:03:12and gradually talked him down
01:03:14until they're able
01:03:15to end the call.
01:03:16He could always,
01:03:17as we say at home,
01:03:18he could always talk
01:03:18an owl out of a tree.
01:03:23Under pressure from Blair,
01:03:25Clinton softens his stance
01:03:27on ground troops
01:03:29and in the face
01:03:30of a united front,
01:03:32Milosevic backs down.
01:03:33The logic of the campaign
01:03:36came through to Tony
01:03:38much quicker
01:03:39than it did to other leaders
01:03:41and I don't think
01:03:41and I don't think we would
01:03:42have got anything
01:03:42like the outcome
01:03:44had it not been
01:03:44for that personal commitment
01:03:46that he made.
01:03:50Blair's standing up
01:03:52to Milosevic
01:03:52helped end the conflict
01:03:54in Kosovo,
01:03:55saving thousands of lives.
01:04:18whenever something in politics
01:04:20looks at its zenith,
01:04:22of the termites
01:04:24at work
01:04:25on the base.
01:04:26That is a sort of cyclical,
01:04:28almost natural rule
01:04:29of politics
01:04:30and people that I've spoken to
01:04:32who know him very well,
01:04:33they all point to Kosovo.
01:04:35At that point,
01:04:37for the first time,
01:04:39maybe a slight parting
01:04:40from reality
01:04:41began to take place.
01:04:48The moment that he appeared
01:04:51rather like,
01:04:52you know,
01:04:52Christ walking through
01:04:54the Holy Land
01:04:55with people hailing him
01:04:57as if he had worked
01:04:58a miracle,
01:04:59a friend of mine,
01:05:00a friend of Tony's,
01:05:01said to me
01:05:02he thought he could walk
01:05:03on water
01:05:04and in that triumph
01:05:07the seeds of tragedy
01:05:10were so.
01:05:19This is not a battle
01:05:21for NATO.
01:05:22This is not a battle
01:05:23for territory.
01:05:25This is a battle
01:05:26for humanity.
01:05:28It is a just cause.
01:05:30It is a rightful cause.
01:05:32And we will make sure
01:05:33that these people here
01:05:35are returned to their homes.
01:05:37That is our commitment
01:05:38to them.
01:05:39Practical help,
01:05:40practical commitment
01:05:41and above all else,
01:05:43a determination
01:05:44that all this suffering
01:05:46and all this misery
01:05:48and everything
01:05:49that has been created
01:05:50by the brutality
01:05:51of Milosevic
01:05:52shall not last
01:05:54but shall be reversed,
01:05:56shall be defeated
01:05:56so these people
01:05:58can once again
01:05:59become symbols
01:06:01of hope,
01:06:01humanity
01:06:02and peace.
01:06:06He was at his best.
01:06:10He really felt deeply
01:06:11it had to be done.
01:06:14We had a moral responsibility
01:06:16to act.
01:06:18The international politics
01:06:19were difficult
01:06:20but he showed genuine leadership
01:06:22in moving the dialogue.
01:06:28My concerns were
01:06:30the alacrity
01:06:31with which he wanted
01:06:32to take military action.
01:06:34His very quick decision
01:06:36we'll go in
01:06:36we're going to get involved
01:06:37we're going to do this militarily.
01:06:39It had been
01:06:40in those terms
01:06:41successful
01:06:42but I think he then
01:06:44realised
01:06:45that he had the power
01:06:46to do this
01:06:47and we then
01:06:49descended
01:06:49in my view
01:06:50into the horrors
01:06:52of the post-2001 situation.
01:06:58Well one of the things
01:06:58you learn in politics
01:06:59is they could be
01:07:00chanting your name
01:07:01one day
01:07:01in praise
01:07:02and they could be
01:07:04chanting it
01:07:04the next day
01:07:05in condemnation.
01:07:06You're going to be
01:07:06strong enough
01:07:07both to withstand
01:07:08the praise
01:07:09and the condemnation.
01:07:10Once you come to the view
01:07:11that what you should do
01:07:12is what you think
01:07:13is right
01:07:14then you've got to
01:07:15stand by that.
01:07:16Some people will hate it
01:07:17some people will love it
01:07:18and that you
01:07:19shouldn't
01:07:20it shouldn't propel you
01:07:22one way or the other.
01:07:53you
01:07:54you
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