Tony Blair's speech on returning to 10 Downing Street
(6 May 2005)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled his third-term government at the start of perhaps the most crucial week of his political career, amid talk of a possible challenge to his leadership.(AFP/File/Carl de Souza)


Tony Blair:

I've just come from Buckingham Palace where the Queen has asked me to form a new government which I will do.

It's a tremendous honour and privilege to be elected for a third term and I'm acutely conscious of that honour and that privilege.

When I stood here first eight years ago I was a lot younger but also a lot less experienced.

Today as well as having in our minds the priorities that people want, we, I, the government, has the knowledge, as well as the determination and commitment, to deliver them.

The great thing about the election is that you go out and talk to people for week upon week.

And I've listened and I've learned, and I think I've a very clear idea what the people now expect from the government in a third term.

And I want to say to them very directly that I, we, the government, are going to focus relentlessly now on the priorities that people have set for us.

What are those priorities? First they like the strong economy, but life is still a real struggle for many people and many families in this country and they know there are new issues: help for first time buyers to get their feet on the first rungs of the housing ladder; families trying to cope with balancing work and family life; many people struggling to make ends meet; many families on low incomes who desperately need help and support to increase their living standards; businesses who whilst they like the economic stability, want us also to focus on stimulating enterprise on investing in science and skills and technology for the future.

It's very clear what people want us to do and we will do it.

Second in relation to the public services, health and education, again people like the investment that has gone into public services, they welcome it. I have found absolutely no support for any suggestion we cut back that investment.

The people want that money to work better for them, they want higher standards, both of care and of education for the investment we are putting in.

And so we will focus on delivering not just the investment but the reform and change of those public services and I will do so with passion, because I want to keep universal public services that know that the only way of keeping the consent for them is by making the changes necessary for the twenty-first century.

And third, people welcome the fact that so many more people are in work and have moved off benefit and into work, but people still know there are too many people economically inactive who should to be helped off benefit and into work.

And they also know that, whatever help we are giving today's pensioners, tomorrow's pensioners are deeply concerned as to whether they will have the standard of life that they want.

People expect us to sort out these issues, we will do so.

And fourth, I've also learnt that the British people are a tolerant and decent people, they did not want immigration made a divisive issue in the course of the election campaign, but they do believe there are real problems in our immigration and asylum system and they expect us to sort them out, and we will do so.

And fifth, I've been struck again and again in the course of this campaign by people worrying that in our country today, though they like the fact we have got over the deference of the past, there is a disrespect that people don't like.

And whether it's in the classroom, or on the street in town centres on a Friday or Saturday night, I want to focus on this issue. We've done a lot so far with anti-social orders and additional numbers of police.

But I want to make this a particular priority for this government, how we bring back a proper sense of respect in our schools, in our communities, in our towns and our villages.

And rising out of that will be a radical programme of legislation that will focus exactly on those priorities: on education; on health; on welfare reform; on immigration; on law and order.

In addition I know that Iraq has been a deeply divisive issue in this country, that has been very clear.

But I also know and believe that after this election people want to move on, they want to focus on the future in Iraq and here.

And I know too that there are many other issues that concern people in the international agenda, and we will focus on those, on poverty in Africa, on climate change, on making progress in Israel and Palestine.

So there is a very big agenda for a third-term. Even if we don't have quite the same expectations that people had of us in 1997, we now have the experience and the commitment to see it through.

One final thing: I've also learnt something about the British people, that whatever the difficulties and disagreements with us, and whatever issues and challenges that confront them, their values of fairness and decency and opportunity for all, and the belief that people should be able to get on, on the basis of hard work and merit, not class and background, those values are the values I believe in, the values our government will believe in.

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