Jill Rutter from the London-based Institute of Business stated that Tony Blair wants to return to British politics as a "major player," and she mentioned that the first leader ready to facilitate this seems to be Starmer.
British media outlets like the Daily Mail titled "Tony Blair Still Works Like a Prime Minister," and The Telegraph stated, "Tony Blair is preparing to lead the UK again - and Starmer may allow him."
So, who is Tony Blair, known for his support for the invasion of Iraq during his prime ministership and his subsequent "consultancy" activities?
Born in Edinburgh in 1953, Blair studied law at Oxford University and became a lawyer.
He joined the Labour Party in 1975 and became the Shadow Home Secretary of the party in 1992.
Tony Blair served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007, and he supported the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, alongside then-US President Bush, following the 9/11 attacks.
Years later, in 2016, the findings of the inquiry into the Iraq War were revealed in the Chilcot Report. These results shed light on the period that drew the most criticism towards Blair. The chairman of the commission conducting the investigation shared with the public that Iraq posed no imminent threat at that time, and that Blair unconditionally supported the invasion to Bush. According to British government sources, Blair faced significant backlash due to his reluctance to criticize Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war and his continued support for Bush. As a result, he resigned in June 2007.
After stepping down from the Prime Minister position, in the same year, Blair was appointed as the Middle East special envoy by the US, the EU, Russia, and the UN; he held this position until 2015.
After his Prime Ministership, Tony Blair also founded the strategic consultancy firm "Tony Blair Associates." The profits from the company supported Blair's work in the areas of faith, Africa, and climate change. In 2016, he announced that he would focus on "non-profit" activities and ended most of his commercial ventures.
In December 2016, Tony Blair announced that he had established an institute to provide "thought leadership" to politicians and governments worldwide.
This institute, named the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, aimed to stand against the "new populism." In its opening statement, Blair emphasized that he wouldn't return to the forefront of politics. However, his recent meeting with the leader of the Labour Party as part of the "Future of Britain" project within the institute has reinforced the idea that Blair might actively rejoin politics after a long hiatus.
