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 be wiped out. When Labour was re-elected for a third consecutive term at the 2005 general election (though with a vastly reduced majority following the landslide victories at the previous two elections), many MPs spoke of the Labour election victory as being Brown's achievement rather than Blair's; while Blair was facing criticism as Prime Minister for leading the UK into needless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Brown was receiving credit for helping secure a strong economy for Britain. On 20 April 2006, in a speech to the United Nations Ambassadors, Brown outlined a "Green" view of global development: In 2000,