An acrobat politician rather than an engineer politician, he was never sufficiently interested in the mechanics of government and that had consequences for its performance. They invent, they exaggerate, they deny saying things they've said' – Alastair Campbell on Boris Johnson and Donald Trump". In this sense at least," concludes Seldon, "his faith has narrowed him, and made him less willing to listen . He launched a regular series of 'Instagram live' broadcasts, in which he vented his criticisms of Boris Johnson.

Campbell said that from that day onwards he counted each day that he did not drink alcohol, and did not stop counting until he had reached thousands. Ed Miliband, then vying for the vacant position of Labour Party leader, said on the day of publication, "I think it is time to move on from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson and to move on from the New Labour establishment and that is the candidate that I am at this election who can best turn the page. sport, business, culture, (and) other aspects of life that I find interesting", succeeding Piers Morgan.His first significant contribution to news journalism was coverage of the Penlee lifeboat disaster in December 1981, while a trainee on the Plymouth-based Sunday Independent, then owned by Mirror Group Newspapers. Not only did he attempt to accrue all government power to himself, he also tried to take it into new areas, setting targets for smoking, obesity, drinking and teenage pregnancy, to give just a few examples. He did not join the university Labour Club and, even after he joined the party in 1975, rose no higher than assistant branch secretary, failing to get adopted as a local council candidate. Labour Member of Parliament Tom Harris said that the book "will be a reminder that opposition doesn't have to be permanent, and that great things can be accomplished by a Labour government, but only if we have a leader capable of appealing to voters beyond our own party's core. While Blair praises Brown as a good Chancellor and a committed public servant, he believes Brown's decision to abandon the New Labour policies of the Blair years led to the party's 2010 election defeat.

Where religion is important to Blair, in Seldon's judgment, is in providing inner reassurance that he is doing right. He was uneducated about the Reformation, the French Revolution, the eruption of European nationalism and socialism during the 19th century, the causes and conduct of the first and second world wars … he was even uninformed about the Labour party’s history and its leaders”. Campbell became a central figure in the handling of the aftermath of Princess Diana's death after the head of the royal household, the Earl of Airlie, asked Tony Blair to second Campbell to help prepare the funeral, saying they knew it would have to be different. Yet it is now a commonplace of much public discourse that he was one of the most despicable characters ever to inhabit No 10, even the “most hated man in Britain”. If there is one area of the Blair era that remains under-reported it is his life after Downing Street.He immediately appealed the decision, saying tactical voting was not a breach of the rule under which he had been expelled, and arguing that unless all others who had acted as he did were expelled he also had a case for discrimination. More relaxed official attitudes to ministers and civil servants giving interviews to journalists, the rise of the political adviser charged with ensuring that ministers' views and intentions are understood by the public, the decline of social inhibitions on divulging confidences (or, put another way, the increased acceptability of gossip and tittle-tattle) and the enormous growth of media scrutiny - all these have increased the volume of material available to contemporary biographers and historians. The problem with the Bower version is that, even when his criticisms might be just, he tells the story in such a relentlessly accusatory tone that he leaves no room for any subtlety or context in his narrative.

Francis Beckett and David Hencke's The Survivor: Tony Blair in Peace and War is even more of a hybrid.

In November 2017, he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in recognition of his work in breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness and promoting the importance of psychiatry. It was also released as an audiobook, read by Blair, [6] available for download and on 13 compact discs with a playing time of 16 hours. Three consecutive election victories, two of them by landslides, ought to give him a place in the history books as Labour’s most successful leader. No other leader has given more thought to his public image, and had so much written about him while in office. Blair recounts that at his first meeting with Queen Elizabeth II following his election as Prime Minister, the Queen told him, "You are my tenth prime minister.