Second Blair ministry

The second Blair ministry lasted from June 2001 to May 2005. Following the financial crisis in Japan at the end of the 1990s, there was a brief recession in other parts of the developed world including Germany,[1] Italy and France in the early-2000s, but the UK avoided recession and continued to maintain a strong economy and low unemployment.[2]

Second Blair ministry
2001–2005
Blair in 2002
Date formed	8 June 2001 (2001-06-08)
Date dissolved	6 May 2005 (2005-05-06)
People and organisations
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Prime Minister's history	1997–2007
Deputy Prime Minister	John Prescott
Member party	Labour Party
Status in legislature	Majority 412 / 659 (63%)
Opposition cabinet	Hague Shadow Cabinet Duncan Smith Shadow Cabinet Howard Shadow Cabinet
Opposition party	Conservative Party
Opposition leader	William Hague (2001) Iain Duncan Smith (2001–2003) Michael Howard (2003–2005)
History
Election(s)	2001 general election
Outgoing election	2005 general election
Legislature term(s)	53rd UK Parliament
Budget(s)	2002 budget 2003 budget 2004 budget 2005 budget
Predecessor	First Blair ministry
Successor	Third Blair ministry

By the time the next general election was on the horizon, Labour were looking well positioned for a record third successive term in government. Unemployment remained low and the economy remained strong with more than a decade of unbroken growth, and education and healthcare had changed for the better as a result of expenditure by Labour.

However, the Labour government had attracted controversy by sending British troops to fight in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, and even more so when it joined the American-led invasion of Iraq eighteen months later – particularly when it emerged that the ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction were never found, and serious questions were raised about the issue of going to war. Although the regimes in both of these countries were swiftly ended by British and American troops, the remaining British forces were not withdrawn from Iraq until 2009 and not from Afghanistan until 2014.

Soon after the controversial invasion of Iraq in 2003, Labour support in the opinion polls fell and the Conservatives drew level with them in at least one poll during 2003. However, this did little to end speculation about the future of their unpopular leader Iain Duncan Smith and in October 2003, he lost a vote of no confidence and was replaced by Michael Howard, who stood unopposed for the leadership role and took control without a leadership contest.