Blair becomes first Briton to win Abraham Lincoln leadership award
Former prime minister Tony Blair has been named as the first British recipient of an award for leadership in memory of Abraham Lincoln.
The Lincoln Leadership Prize honours figures who show “great strength of character, individual conscience and unwavering commitment to the defining principles of democracy” in a lifetime of service in the spirit of the 16th president of the United States.
Naming Mr Blair as its 2018 winner, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation cited his stewardship of the Northern Ireland peace process, introduction of the National Minimum Wage and civil partnerships, “revitalisation” of public services including health and education, improvements to maternity rights, success in lifting people out of poverty and equality and human rights legislation.
And it hailed his record since leaving office in 2007 of work in the Middle East and Africa and fighting religiously-based extremism, as well as supporting a new generation of leaders through the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
In announcing the award, the ALPLF made no mention of Mr Blair’s controversial decision to commit the UK to war in Iraq in 2003.
But the chairman of its board of directors, Ray Mccaskey, said Mr Blair shared with Lincoln an understanding that leaders have to take decisions unpopular with the public.