Tony Blair became the first British Prime Minister to answer questions from YouTube users, appearing in a video on the site as part of his governing Labour Party’s move to attract younger voters.
Author John O’Farrell, a Labour supporter who wrote the 1998 book Things Can Only Better about the party’s decade out of power, interviewed the PM on Labour’s own YouTube channel.
“Margaret Thatcher never did it, Harold Macmillan never did it, Winston Churchill never did it,” he said. “I don’t know what their excuse was.”
Blair appeared once before on Labour’s channel, but not to answer questions from users.
Blair’s appearance comes as American politicians are ramping up their participation on YouTube. The site recently unveiled You Choose ’08 and invited presidential candidates to directly address the American people. YouTube highlights one politician per week.
Democratic contender John Edwards is currently stumping. He was preceeded by Mitt Romney.
No politicians have agreed to debate on YouTube yet, but several Internet media companies announced they are sponsoring an online debate on a separate site this fall.