Gamla ärkerivaler enas i kampen mot hård brexit

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and the Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. From 1983 to 2007, Blair was the MP for Sedgefield. He was elected Labour Party leader in July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith, who together with his predecessor, Neil Kinnock, had started to move the party closer to the political centre, in the hope of winning power. Under Blair's leadership, the party used the phrase "New Labour", to distance it from previous Labour policies and the traditional conception of socialism. Blair declared support for a new conception that he referred to as "social-ism", involving politics that recognised individuals as socially interdependent, and advocated social justice, cohesion, the equal worth of each citizen, and equal opportunity, also referred to as the Third Way. Critics of Blair denounced him for having the Labour Party abandon genuine socialism and accepting capitalism. Supporters, including the party's public opinion pollster Philip Gould, stated that after four consecutive general election defeats, the Labour Party had to demonstrate that it had made a decisive break from its left-wing past, in order to win an election again. In May 1997, the Labour Party won a landslide general election victory, the largest in its history, allowing Blair, at 43 years old, to become the youngest Prime Minister since 1812. In September 1997, Blair attained early personal popularity, receiving a 93% public approval rating, after his public response to the death of Princess Diana. The Labour Party went on to win two more elections under his leadership: in 2001, in which it won another landslide victory, and in 2005, with a reduced majority. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blair's government introduced the National Minimum Wage Act, Human Rights Act, and Freedom of Information Act. Blair's government also devolved power, establishing the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. In Northern Ireland, Blair was involved in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Blair strongly supported the foreign policy of the Bush administration, and ensured that the British Armed Forces participated in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and, more controversially, the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Blair has faced strong criticism for his role in the invasion of Iraq, including calls for having him tried for war crimes and waging a war of aggression. In 2016, the Iraq Inquiry strongly criticised his actions and described the invasion of Iraq as unjustified and unnecessary. Blair was succeeded as the leader of the Labour Party and as Prime Minister by Gordon Brown in June 2007. On the day that Blair resigned as Prime Minister, he was appointed the official Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, an office which he held until May 2015. He now runs a consultancy business and has set up various foundations in his own name, including the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Sir John Major, KG, CH, PC (born 29 March 1943) is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. A cabinet minister from 1987, he served Margaret Thatcher in the Treasury and Foreign Office during her third ministry. Major was Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon from 1979 to 2001. He has been the oldest living former Prime Minister since the death of his predecessor Thatcher in 2013. At the beginning of his premiership, Major presided over British participation in the Gulf War in March 1991 and negotiated the Maastricht Treaty in December 1991. He went on to lead the Conservatives to a fourth consecutive election victory, winning the most votes in British electoral history with over 14 million votes in the 1992 general election, with a reduced majority in the House of Commons. Shortly after this, even though a staunch supporter of the ERM, the Major Government became responsible for British exit from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after Black Wednesday on 16 September 1992. This event led to a loss of confidence in Conservative economic policies and Major was never able to achieve a lead in opinion polls again. Despite the eventual revival of economic growth amongst other successes such as the beginnings of the Northern Ireland peace process, by the mid-1990s the Conservative Party was embroiled in scandals involving various MPs, including Cabinet Ministers. Criticism of Major's leadership reached such a pitch that he chose to resign as leader in June 1995, challenging his critics to either back him or challenge him; he was duly challenged by John Redwood but was easily re-elected. By this time, the Labour Party had moved further to the right of the political spectrum under the leadership of Tony Blair and won a large number of by-elections, eventually depriving the Government of its majority in February 1997. Major went on to lose the 1997 general election months later, in one of the largest electoral defeats since the Great Reform Act of 1832. After defeat, Major resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded as Leader of the Conservative Party by William Hague. He went on to retire from active politics, leaving the House of Commons at the 2001 general election.