Blair ministry the May 1997 election with a 179-seat majority. The Prime Minister Tony Blair, who turned 44 years old days after leading Labour to victory, was the youngest Prime Minister of the twentieth century. Blair quickly wiped away memories of the troubled Labour governments led by Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 70's as the economic recovery continued and unemployment continued to fall. While other developed countries, notably Japan, were hit by a financial crisis during Blair's first term in office, the British economy remained strong. In September 2000, however, protests against fuel prices intensified across the country
Premiership of Tony Blair was passed with a majority of only five votes, due to a large-scale backbench Labour rebellion. A defeat was averted by a last-minute change of intention by a small number of Gordon Brown's backbench allies.. On 1 August 2003, Blair became the longest continuously-serving Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, surpassing Clement Attlee's six-year term from 1945–51. The Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr. David Kelly reported on 2 August, ruled that he had committed suicide, and despite widespread expectations that the report would criticise Blair and his government, Hutton cleared the Government of deliberately inserting false intelligence