office_contested united kingdom general election
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair , ( born 6 May 1953 ), commonly called Tony Blair , is a British politician who served as the ___MASK75___ from 1997 to 2007 and the Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007 . Together with President George W . Bush in 2003 , he initiated the Iraq War with the invasion of Iraq , an act which remains highly controversial . George Walker Bush ( born July 6 , 1946 ) is an American politician who served as the 43rd ___MASK64___ of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 . He is the eldest son of Barbara and George H . W . Bush . After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975 , he worked in oil businesses . Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter . He later co - owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election . Bush was elected ___MASK64___ in 2000 after a close and controversial election against Al Gore , becoming the fourth ___MASK64___ to be elected while receiving fewer popular votes nationwide than an opponent . He is the second ___MASK64___ to have been a son of a former ___MASK64___ , the first having been John Quincy Adams . He is also a brother of Jeb Bush , a former Governor of Florida and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election . The ___MASK75___ is the head of Her Majesty ' s Government in the United Kingdom . The prime minister ( informal abbreviation : PM ) and Cabinet ( consisting of all the most senior ministers , most of whom are government department heads ) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch , to Parliament , to their political party and ultimately to the electorate . The office is one of the Great Offices of State . The , Theresa May , leader of the Conservative Party , was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016 . The United Kingdom general election , 2001 , was held on Thursday , 7 June 2001 , to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons . It was dubbed `` the quiet landslide '' by the media , as the Labour Party was re - elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of five seats , though with significantly lower turnout than before -- 59 . 4 % , compared to 71 . 3 % in the previous election . Tony Blair went on to become the first Labour ___MASK96___ to serve a second consecutive full term in office . There was little change outside Northern Ireland , with 620 out of the 641 seats electing candidates from the same party as they did in 1997 . Factors contributing to the Labour victory were a strong economy and falling unemployment , as well as that Labour was seen as having delivered on many key election pledges that it had made in 1997 . The Conservative Party , under William Hague ' s leadership , was still deeply divided on the issue of Europe and the party ' s policy platform was considered to have shifted to a right - wing focus . Hague was also hindered by a series of embarrassing publicity stunts , and resigned as party leader three months later , becoming the first Conservative leader since Austen Chamberlain to leave office without becoming ___MASK96___ . The election was essentially a repeat of the 1997 election , with Labour losing only 6 seats overall and the Conservatives making a net gain of one seat ( gaining nine seats , but losing eight ) . The Conservatives did manage to gain a seat in Scotland , which ended the party ' s status as an ' England - only ' party in the prior parliament . Although they did not gain many seats , one of the new MPs elected was future Conservative ___MASK96___ David Cameron . The Liberal Democrats gained six seats . Change was seen in Northern Ireland , with the moderately unionist Ulster Unionist Party losing four seats to the more hardline Democratic Unionist Party . This transition was mirrored in the republican community with the moderate SDLP losing votes to the more staunchly republican and abstentionist Sinn Féin . The election was also marked with exceptionally low voter turnout , falling below 60 % for the first time since 1918 . The election was broadcast live on the BBC , and presented by Jeremy Paxman , Andrew Marr , Peter Snow and David Dimbleby .