Tony Blair 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. In May 1997, the Labour Party won a landslide general election victory, the largest in its history. Blair, at 43 years of age, became the youngest Prime Minister since 1812. In September 1997, Blair attained early personal popularity, receiving a 93% public approval rating, after his public response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The Labour Party went on to win two more general elections under his leadership: in 2001, in
Premiership of Tony Blair principle of separation of powers. In this context, Blair had four defeats in the Parliament, including an amendment that would have allowed the conditional detention of terrorism suspects. Political commentators have also pointed to the constant tussle between the Chancellor Gordon Brown and Tony Blair as evidence that the Prime Minister was not all too powerful. This, according to them, demonstrates that the Cabinet was still an effective arena for political dialogue. Gordon Brown served as Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom from the Labour Party's 1997 general election victory on 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007,