Tony Blair
Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007.
On 29 September 2026 Andy Burnham committed Labour's next manifesto to a new Commons voting system, reopening the electoral-Reform promise Tony Blair's 1997 manifesto made and his government left unkept.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Tony Blair
Mentioned in: Burnham pledges to change voting system
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Burnham builds a cabinet of his own
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Starmer quits as PM and Labour leader
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Health Sec Streeting walks on Starmer
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Eight resign in two days on Starmer
UK Local Elections 2026Background
Tony Blair led Labour from 1994 and was Prime Minister from May 1997 to June 2007, winning the general elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005.
His party's 1997 manifesto promised a referendum on the Commons voting system. A Commission recommended a hybrid model in 1998, but his government shelved the report and the vote never came. He passed the premiership to Gordon Brown in June 2007 on a timetable announced well ahead, and Brown took office without a general election.
After Downing Street he founded the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in 2016. His record on electoral Reform is the benchmark any later Labour leader promising change is measured against.
An unkept 1997 pledge resurfaces
Blair won power in May 1997 on a manifesto that offered a referendum on how MPs are elected. His government set up a Commission under Roy Jenkins, received its recommendation for AV-plus in 1998, then put the report aside. No referendum took place in his ten years in Downing Street.
Burnham's conference pledge in Liverpool on 29 September 2026 picks up the thread Blair dropped, though Burnham named no preferred system and his new National Commission on Electoral Reform had no chair. The comparison puts Blair's choice back under scrutiny: his 1997 landslide gave him the Commons majority to change the voting system, and he chose not to use it for that.