Trauma underpinned Blair's steep rise to political power

In a disarmingly personal interview, Sir Tony Blair discloses how his desire for political power was triggered by the early trauma of his father having a stroke and the death of his mother.

- GEORDIE GREIG, DAVID MADDOX

Speaking to Geordie Greig, editor-in-chief of The Independent, the former prime minister said his ambition to gain power came directly from those tragic moments. He was aged 10 when his father was incapacitated and 22 when his mother died.

The former Labour leader declares as his new book, On Leadership, is published: “The moment I saw what power was and what it could do, I wanted it.”

As well as providing a masterclass in how to wield power, it also reveals his personal faults and successes during his decade in No 10 as well as the next 17 years forming the Tony Blair Institute, which today has 1,000 staff and advises governments of more than 40 countries.

“Power should be based on a desire to do something that you believe as a matter of conviction and principle. But, if you are being honest the power itself is attractive. It doesn’t mean you should pursue it at the expense of the principle, but your wanting to exercise leadership in the exercise of power is what goes with it,” he explains.

His motive when he was young, he says, was always “to change the world, to put principles into practice, to be respected and recognised as a person with power and to feel that power, to feel how it could shape my world around me as well as the world of others”.

The impact of his mother dying aged 52 and his father’s devastating stroke at 40 was profound. “I realised the fragility of everything, our life circumstances changed completely, our main source of income had gone. It was three years before dad could even speak again. It haunted me ever after and made me what I am,” he says.

“I remember my mother coming in that morning. Dad had come back from an event, late at night and I could tell immediately something’s wrong in the way that you do as a child. Then she explained that he was in hospital and had been seriously ill.