Os Líderes

Para quem quer saber um pouco mais sobre quem são os homens que lideram essa 3 forças políticas aqui deixo as suas biografias:

IAIN DUNCAN-SMITH – líder dos Conservatives

Iain was born in April 1954. He was educated at Dunchurch College of Management, the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, the Universita di Perugia in Italy and HMS Conway in Anglesey.

Commissioned into the Scots Guards, Iain saw active service in Northern Ireland and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well as serving in Canada and Germany.

At the age of 27, he left the army and worked for GEC-Marconi before later joining Bellwinch, a property company, and then joined the board of Jane's Information Group, thepublishing company.

Iain has been married to Betsy since 1982, and they have two sons and two daughters, aged between 9 and 15.

He was elected as Member of Parliament for Chingford at the 1992 General Election. In 1997, he was re-elected for the re-drawn constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green.

Under William Hague, Iain was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 1997, first as Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security, and then as Shadow Defence Secretary in 1999.

In September 2001, at the age of 47, he was elected Leader of the Conservative Party in the first ever ballot of the Party's membership.

TONY BLAIR – líder do Labour Party

The son of a barrister and lecturer, Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh, but spent most of his childhood in Durham. At the age of 14 he returned to Edinburgh to finish his education at Fettes College. He studied law at Oxford, and went on to become a barrister himself.

After standing unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in a by-election, Blair went on to win the seat of Sedgefield in the 1983 General Election, aged 30.

After the 1992 election Labour's new leader, John Smith, promoted Blair to Shadow Home Secretary.

John Smith died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1994, and in the subsequent leadership contest Tony Blair won a large majority of his party's support.

Blair immediately launched his campaign for the modernisation of the Labour Party, determined to complete the shift further towards the political centre which he saw as essential for victory. The debate over Clause 4 of the party's constitution was considered the crucial test of whether its members would commit to Blair's project. He removed the commitment to public ownership, and at this time coined the term New Labour.

The Labour Party won the 1997 General Election by a landslide, after 18 years in Opposition. At the age of 43 , Tony Blair became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812.

Tony Blair was re-elected with another landslide majority in the 2001 General Election.

He is married to the barrister Cherie Booth QC, and they have four children. Their youngest, Leo, was the first child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years.

CHARLES KENNEDY – líder dos Liberal Democrats

Charles Kennedy was born in Inverness on November 25 1959 and brought up and educated at Lochaber High School in Fort William.

At the University of Glasgow he was elected President of the Union, won the British Observer Mace for university debating and graduated with MA Joint Honours in Politics and Philosophy in 1982.

He then worked as a journalist and broadcaster with BBC Highland in Inverness before being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Indiana University in the United States, where he taught public speaking and carried out graduate research in speech communication, political rhetoric and British politics.

Between the 1992 and 1997 general elections he was the party spokesperson on European Affairs, and was team leader on Agriculture and Rural Affairs, until his election as leader of the Liberal Democrats in August 1999.

In June 2001, he led the Liberal Democrats to their best ever General Election result - the most successful for any third party since 1929.