<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007 . He is the most recent British Labour Party leader to have won a general election . </P> <P> From 1983 to 2007, Blair was the Member of Parliament (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 bringing the Labour Party towards the perceived centre ground of British politics, abandoning' genuine' socialism and being too amenable to 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 . </P>

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